The Walking Dead: New Hope
by MewLover54
Summary: An AU fic. On the highway with hundreds of abandoned cars, the group have to pull together and find shelter. With the help of some new friends, maybe they can make it to the salvation. Their hopes. Their safety. My first Walking Dead fanfic. Rated M for swearing and zombie killing. Some pairings, Carl/Sophia Daryl/Carol etc.
1. Chapter 1

ML54: Hey guys, MewLover54 here bringing you my first Walking Dead Fanfic!

Rick: Why have you decided to branch out?

ML54: Well I only just started watching it, but I really like it. A lot more than I thought I would.

Glen: *Rolls eyes* Gee, thanks.

ML54: Okay, as I said this is my first Walking Dead Fanfic so first I don't own it, but I do own my OC and the plotline.

* * *

**Lost and Found**

Running, that's all she could remember. Running from the monsters that once shared the hardships of this world with the rest of them, but now only caused it.

The blonde child glanced over her right shoulder, trying to keep the sun over it. No, wait, Mr. Rick might have said to keep it over her LEFT shoulder. What was she doing?! What did he say?!

She scanned the area behind her to find none of them there, but had no idea where she was. She looked forward after slowing down a bit. She wasn't going to stop fully though. Walkers could come from anywhere as she had experienced first hand with the sudden appearance of one coming for her under the car.

She knew she shouldn't have left the underside of the vehicle providing her cover, but she just wanted to get to her mother. Was it a crime to want to hold your mother? Was it punishment from God for the sins they'd committed on this Earth? To have them all stripped of those most important to them?

"_Get a grip, Sophia!" _She had berated herself in her head, not wanting to make noise for the undead to hear her. _"This is easily solved, just turn back the way you came!"_

Actually, that argument made a lot of sense. She had been running in one direction for the whole journey. So if she just retraced her steps, then she'd find her way back.

She stopped running and turned back. It was easy to spot where she had come from. She kept on the moist marsh land so was able to see the footprints she had left. She allowed a small smile. At least her cruel dad had taught her one useful thing while in the forests.

Her father, Ed Peletier, has hardly ever been a good father. In fact, he stopped being one when she turned seven. When he started drinking. But at least before then he taught her a couple of good tricks on how to get out of forests and marshlands.

"_I guess I have one thing to be grateful for dad." _She thought, bitterly. Five years, that man had hit her mom and insulted her. But those whacks and names weren't reserved for her mother. He had often applied the same treatment to his only child as well.

But, as nasty as he was, she'd be lying if she'd said she was happy that he was dead. It would be misleading to say she held no remorse. The truth of the matter was actually that she missed him a lot. He was tormentous, yes, but at least he was strong. Strong enough to help protect her and her mother from the walkers.

In fact, she may have never gotten lost if he HAD been alive. He might have yelled, in a hushed tone of course, to stay under there and threaten what he'd do to her if she didn't. The threat may have been scary, but no where near as scary as being alone in the forest.

Suddenly, a rustling in the bushes caught her attention and she hastened her step. She was pretty sure no-one from the group would have steered off this way to try and find her. Hell she was only gone a short while, to her anyway, so they may not even be looking yet.

Then her worst nightmare seemed to have come to life. A walker.

This walker resembled that of a women in an old nurse's outfit. Quite ironic if seen by most people and Sophia would have laughed had she not been so scared. It's decayed flesh hung loosely in ribbons on her arms and neck, suggesting that's where she had been bitten. From the look of the grey and dirty skin she looked to have been dead for a while.

For some reason, Sophia had frozen on the spot. Maybe it was because the walker had blocked off her trail, maybe it was the horrible hissing noise it made from it's damaged throat.

Adrenaline had suddenly kicked into action and, using her smaller build to her advantage, she ran right under the walkers thrown out arms, her hair narrowly missed being caught by it's claws. It's strange how, while living, we had fingernails. But if we turned, those nails got sharper and became claws.

It was almost as if they evolved the trait as they died so they could feast upon the living's flesh more efficiently. But the teeth remained relatively the same, true yellower and more rotten, but were held in their mouths strongly enough not to fall out.

Carl had once been in a discussion with her about that. Why, if they were decaying, did the teeth seem to be able to stay in their as they're feasting. If they bit into a person's skin, they'd need to apply quite a bit of pressure. Sophia, herself, had bit her dad in self defence. Her adult incisor had become loose after he pulled his arm away. Not even a hint of a scar. No blood.

She didn't know why she was thinking these things now of all times! She had to run! Before the walker could regain it's balance. She quickly found her footprints again and ran along them as fast as her tired feet would carry her.

Which, unfortunately, wasn't far. She'd tripped on what had appeared to be a piece of root from a tree. But if that was true, then why did it smell so bad.

She glanced back and was horrified to see that she had tripped over another walker that had appeared to have been sitting down. _"I didn't see that one on the way here! I definitely would have noticed. Either my dad was right and I'm just an unobservant brat, or I went the wrong way!"_

She noticed the leg under her's twitch and she fought to get up again. Using every ounce of strength she had left, she got herself up just as the nurse walker had pounced. In doing so the nurse accidentally took a bite out the sitting zombie.

As it turned out, the sitting zombie looked to be a red-neck of some kind. He was wearing a torn chequered shirt and torn jeans. He also had a hat that had fallen from him. In fact, said hat was right at her feet.

It was a simple baseball cap bought from any convenience store. Well, not so convenient now-a-days. It's front half was white and it's back half and eye guard was red. She thought for a moment, seeing the two tangled walkers, before shrugging and picking it up. Could be useful for keeping this stupid sun out of her eyes.

Then reality snapped back to her and she abandoned the two undead, picking up the simple, sown-up doll she had dropped in the fall and putting the cap on. Her hair fit nicely inside, she found. Now walkers will have less of her to grab.

"Where could she have gone?" She heard someone ahead say, incredulously. A familiar voice. "I told her to stay here or head back up, keeping the sun over her left shoulder." Mr Rick.

She facepalmed herself, so it WAS the left, not the right. Oh well, she didn't haste in bursting into the clearing, the group of four turned to her, raising their weapons in surprise.

In this group were a police sheriff uniformed man with dark hair and grey eyes. With him was a man with a crossbow with the same kind of complexion of dark hair as Rick, but his eyes were squinting most of the time so it was hard to distinguish his eye colour. Daryl.

Then there was another police dressed man with bushy brown air and matching brown eyes. Shane. Then lastly was a boy about her age and height. His hair a dark colour to match his dad, Rick's, and blue eyes. Carl.

She held up her hands, but still had the common sense to run away from the bushes behind her as fast as possible. This proved to be a sensible course of action as the two walkers from before had finally untangled themselves and had chased her.

She quickly hid behind Carl, her best and, well, only friend her age. Sure she felt guilty for trying to use him as a human shield. But he seemed to hold out his arms protectively anyway. He always wanted to be like his dad, to help people. Of course, this was probably not what he had in mind.

"Walkers!" Shane had exclaimed, pulling out a black shotgun and took aim, before Daryl held up his arm and swung his crossbow round his torso until it rested between his arms lovingly.

"Don' be stoopid Shane. Tha noise will attract more." He responded as he pulled the trigger to the crossbow. The arrow was fired from it's perch in the half open barrel of the crossbow and plugged itself into the red-neck walker's skull. It fell limply as the projectile struck.

One down, one to go.

"Ya know... my mama told me an' Merle not to hit women. Imma sure shed make an exception." He commented, sliding a knife from his belt and plunging it straight into the nurse's eye.

After that, he slid it out as the second lay still. Two down in complete silence, only the sounds of birds and crickets accompanying the faint squelch as Daryl retrieved his precious arrow from the re-killed carcass. He cringed at the look of the blackened blood on it and wiped it down on the nurse's scrubs.

She then saw that the four all turned and looked at her in relief and worry. An oxymoronic mixture of emotions to be feeling. "Are you okay, Sophia?" The blonde haired, green eyed girl who stood just a centimetre taller than the boy of the same age nodded.

"Yeah, why?" Shane approached next, touching her forehead lightly. She flinched back as a nasty sting accompanied his touch. Shane then pulled his index and middle fingers back and saw a familiar red substance oozing from them...

...okay oozing was a bit of an exaggeration. But any wound is serious now. They couldn't afford anyone getting too sick or be dying. They had enough things to worry about.

"How'd you get that cut? It's quite a nasty looking one." Sophia blinked then thought back. There was only one point were her forehead made contact with any surface.

"I-I tripped o-over o-one of the w-walkers when I ran b-back here." She explained, more shakily then she imagined her voice would come. She guessed it must have been the combination of fear and exhaustion that had caused this. Then all at once, as she remembered how long she was running, her legs gave out and she sat on her knees, gasping for air.

It's funny how your brain works. Like when you've cut yourself and you haven't noticed. The pain doesn't come until you've actually SEEN what you've done. Sophia, on the other hand, had only just realised how much screaming and running she had just went through now.

Carl got down on his knees next to her, obviously concerned by the look in his eyes. He put his arm round her back and helped her onto her feet again. They couldn't stay here. If more walkers came, then they were likely to get separated again. They only just found Sophia, the others were in no way going to go on a search party for FIVE missing group members.

Sophia had placed her foot down and cringed slightly. In confusion she glanced down and noticed that a splinter had lodged itself into her knee. It wasn't a big one and probably wouldn't even scar, but her body had been through so much already that Carl's nails seemed to have a powerful effect as he clamped his hand around the bottom of her armpit.

Daryl had taken the lead because he was a hunter. He knew wooded areas and following tracks like the back of his hand. Shane had taken to walking behind the group, ready to alert them if walkers came by and Rick stood by the two twelve-year olds just in case one got too tired to walk.

But Carl was ready to prove to his dad that he was capable of helping with searching. Of being able to help the group and defend them when necessary. How to kill a walker.

He had been aiming to kill one ever since his dad had left the group after only just getting back. He, Glen, Daryl and T-Dog were going after Merle after Rick had handcuffed him to the roof of a department store in Atlanta and T-Dog had dropped the key to the handcuffs down the drain.

Carl wanted to come and help, but was declined, saying it'd be too dangerous. But it had been just as dangerous staying in the camp as, the night they left, they were attacked by hoards of the walkers. They had lost Ed, Amy and Jim.

He hadn't seen Ed die personally. But wished he could have. The man was a bully. A mean man who always hurt Carol, Sophia's mom, and Sophia herself. He couldn't help but to resent the man for what he put his best friend through.

But Amy was a nice person. A sweet girl who had talked to him a few times. At one point he remembered her saying she'd teach him how to fish. Her and her sister Andrea. But she had went to the RV caravan to go to the bathroom. She had got out, complaining about the lack of toilet paper. That's when the walker bit her arm.

Sometimes Carl couldn't help but wonder if she'd still be alive if there had been toilet paper in the small bathroom. She'd be in there for another few minutes. Then she'd of heard all the screaming and locked herself in until it was over.

But of course, he can't turn back time and put new toilet roll in the RV bathroom and even if he could, he'd probably use that ability to warn people about the oncoming doomsday. Then no-one would have had to die.

Then there was Jim, Dale's friend who'd got bitten in his abdomen. No-one had seen it occur and were shocked when they saw it. They tried their best to get him to the CDC, determined to find him a cure. But he had told them he wanted to be left behind. He wanted to become one of them. Like the rest of his family.

But he had to remain focussed. He had literally had to beg to help to find his friend. The only other person in their group who could talk to him without sounding patronising or be talking down to him. His parents didn't count because they were family. Uncle Shane had been ignoring him recently. Glen was always a bit paranoid and so was sort of difficult to talk to. T-Dog didn't really talk to him much. Dale has been keeping a birds eye view on Andrea. Andrea herself was depressed. Daryl was always a bit of a loner and felt uncomfortable when talking to him. Carol was nice but all her time was spent with Sophia.

Once upon a time they had fives others with them as well. The Morales family. They consisted of a father, who went by Morale, his wife Miranda and their two children, Eliza and Louis. They had decided to leave the group in search of somewhere other than the CDC. They didn't seem convinced that there was anything there.

Lastly there was Jacqui. She remained in the CDC with Dr. Jenner as the building ran out of it's main power supply and back-up power. When that went, the whole building went kaput and they died a painless death. They had gotten out because they believed they could survive out there.

And Carl was thankful that they found Sophia, otherwise that hope would have vanished. Sure, she wasn't used to being on her own and had no way of defending herself. But Dr. Jenner wanted a quick and painless death for both Carl and her, them being children. He believed it'd be a mercy killing. But they wanted to live, as did most of the group.

He was so into his thoughts that he didn't notice that they'd made it back to the highway where everyone was gathering supplies. Well, everyone except the short, grey haired women watching the wooded area they just emerged from. Carol.

"SOPHIA!" She called in relief, running down with her arms out to the sides. Sophia looked up and tears could be seen threatening to spill from her irises. Carl smiled, knowing what it's like to have been reunited with a family member you never thought you'd see again. It felt like something in this torn world was right. That maybe there was a God looking down on them in...well he wasn't sure. It could have been pity and it well could have been anger. Or maybe the lord had a twisted sense of humour.

Carl let go of her as she dashed up the brief, grassy hill and into her mother's awaiting arms. "MOMMY!" Sophia cried, wrapping her arms around her mother. As Carol embraced her child, the only real family she had left, the joy of it suddenly overwhelmed her and she let her own tears fall. She embraced her flesh, blood and spirit, happy that's what she still was and wept.

Not noticing what was approaching.

"WALKER!" Carl shouted to the two girls, Daryl and the rest only just getting out of the woodland. He was sent forward while Daryl caught a squirrel. Carol's eyes shot open and stared into the milky irises of a man in a navy uniform limping towards pair.

Carol quickly turned and was ready to take the bite for her baby. She only just got back after being hunted by undead and didn't deserve to be eaten all the same.

"Daryl! Take the shot! Our gun's jammed!" Dale yelled to the only other person who had a weapon that wouldn't make noise. A hoard only just walked past and didn't want them coming again.

"I can' get a good shot. I need to get closer!" He responded, running up the hill, but was grabbed by another walker that was playing dead on the hill. "Son of a bitch!" Daryl screamed out in fustration, kicking his opposition away.

Time seemed to slow down for Sophia as her mother had dropped her and told her to run. She had seen the walker behind her and felt she needed to do something. But what could she do.

Carol turned back to face the walker, it being no more than two metres now. Lunging distance.

"NO!" Daryl shouted, pulling his knife out and stabbing the walker that was pinning him up the chin and into the brain, killing it. He ran forward to try and save the women who'd taken a lot of shit during this trip from her husband. Now that she's free of Ed, Daryl had promised to himself that he'd make sure she and Sophia enjoyed their lives without him.

But he couldn't possibly line up a shot that quickly. He'd have to be Robin Hood on fucking LSD to make that shot!

Just as the walker was about to jump, it was tackled to the ground by someone new. When the walker finally knew what was going on, it was to late and it had it's head caved in by a pipe.

This new person stood up and brushed off his jacket. He was the same kind of build as Daryl with the muscle volume, but he was wearing a black, leather jacket that he had zipped up to the collar. He also wore black, leather trousers and black combat boots.

Carol was surprised when she wasn't dead, her daughter clinging to her like a rope for the second time in ten minutes. She glanced at the new person that had just saved her life as the whole group had made their way over to stare at him, unsure what to make of it.

The person turned to reveal a middle-aged man, bald and sunglasses. Shane narrowed his eyes. "Who're you?" He inquired, raising his gun to point it in this strangers direction. Pumping the shotgun ready. The stranger raised his arms in defence.

"Whoa! Whoa! Easy there, cowboy! You could hurt someone with that thing!" Shane's eyes narrowed further, stepping forward to point the barrel at his face.

"I'll be doing a lot more than just hurting you if you don't give us your name!" Shane spat back, obviously in some sort of bad mood. Rick had quickly snatched the gun off of Shane and glared at him.

"Are you really going to treat a guy who just saved Carol's life, like that?!" Rick reprimanded, chucking the gun back to Dale, who caught it and put it in a pack with the rest of their weapons.

"Oh it's alright. I'd be suspicious too if some random guy just came out of no where to kill a limper." The man caught the groups confusion and laughed. "Oh sorry. That's what my group calls these things..."

"...Yeah and we call them walkers." Rick answered back. "Why do you call them limpers?"

"Well a lot of them have a limp when they walk. We did think about calling them walkers, but thought that they weren't all walking. Most of them were limping." The man took off his sunglasses and wiped his forehead to reveal a pair of milky, white eyes.

"As for my name. I'm Denise McCoy, the blind limper killer!" The man declared in pride.

* * *

ML54: What do you guys think? If you liked it, review. If you think it needs work, review. But please don't flame me.


	2. Chapter 2

ML54: Chapter 2! This is where the story gets interesting a plot starts to unfold!

Shane: You mean there's going to be a plot?

Daryl: Ya mean other than almost the whole world goin' to crap?

ML54: *Smiles brightly* Yup! Disclaimer Carl.

Carl: Okay? MewLover54 doesn't own the Walking Dead, if he did, kids wouldn't be dying.

**One Track Way**

"Blind?" Rick asked, dumbfounded by this revelation. The man in front of them had just killed a walker and saved one of their lives. He also knew that Shane had just pulled a gun on him. How could he be blind? "Then...how?"

Denise pointed to the side of his head, tapping his ear. "Just cause I can't see see, don't mean I can't hear. I heard the limper's hissing and the shotgun pumping." He popped his sunglasses on and shook his head. "Any-hows, I'm just here for one last supply run for my group. We're going to be heading out soon."

"If you've been getting supplies here..." Dale started, approaching the man while handing the bag of guns to Daryl. "...Then why are there still so many supplies here?"

"There's only so much one man can carry..." Denise replied, indicating to the backpack strapped to his back. "...and my group is fairly small. In fact it's just the four of us."

"Where you headin'?" Daryl asked, starting to get interested in the conversation. "And how you headin' there?"

"By train..." The group let their surprise be known. "Yup. We'll be heading to California. We heard there may be people there."

"Don't believe everything you hear." Rick had said to the new man, shaking his head. "We thought there was salvation in Atlanta and it was lovely, aside from the hundreds of walkers and abandoned tanks lying everywhere."

"Ah ha, but this is different. We actually have contact with them..."

"Contact?" Glen asked, trying to get his input in. "But all the electronics, radios, internet and phones don't work anymore."

"We got ourselves a hell of a mechanic. He managed to, in his words, boost the frequency and range of an old hand radio. All we had to do is get some batteries...which I found in a car around this area...That's when we made contact with this guy. He said that there was a place there. That we'd be safe if we got there."

"Could be lying." T-Dog replied, shrugging but then wincing at the large bandaged cut on his arm. "Wouldn't be the first time a stranger told bullshit to another stranger. Did he give a name?"

"I don't know. I never really talked to the speaker. Rally does that. I just look for supplies."

"Wait a darn minute! How do you look for supplies?! And how do you know what you're bringing back?!" Shane retorted, suspiciously.

"Shane has a point." Rick agreed. "Your blind and supplies don't make noise. I could maybe understand food if you can smell. But batteries? No." Denise chuckled a bit, before composing himself.

"Yes he does have a point. And I guess the answer is that I can't. I just grab stuff that I think feels useful and the others judge." Denise shrugged. "The batteries were a lucky find. A Duracell twelve pack."

"Why don't they just send someone who's not blind?" Lori asked, having a hard time believing anything this stranger said.

"Well, the other three aren't very strong and we don't know how to use guns. Rally needed to stay and fix the train. Charlotte's only sixteen and Doc, well he's a little off the deep end."

"Quite the group." Rick stated. "Maybe we could help?"

"Rick! Hold on!" Shane interjected, putting a hand to his shoulder.

"Well that'd be great. We could scour these vehicles quicker and be on the road soon. I could offer y'all a ride to California in return." Denise offered, smiling slightly. "We need more people. We're pretty weak on our own."

"We need to talk about it." Lori replied, dragging her husband by the RV, everyone else following suit.

"Rick, we don't know anything about this guy!" Shane expressed, quietly but firmly. "He could be luring us in to kill us for all you know!"

"I have to agree with Shane on this one." Lori added. "How do we know his group only has three other people?"

"Doc an' Rally are pretty stoopid names to come up wit'." Daryl pointed out, shrugging. "If I were to make up names, I'd wen wit' somethin like James or Charlie."

"Yeah." Carol nodded, clutching Sophia's hand tightly. "And this man saved my life. Why would he bother if he was going to kill us. And everything he said made a lot of sense."

"Except that radio crap." Glen had answered back. "I took electronics at school. They never taught us anything about increasing range and frequency. That's a little suspicious."

"We can figure it out if we investigated." Rick said to the group. "I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard to figure out what's going on with that radio. And putting that aside, California is much bigger. It could have way more supplies than the road. And lots more buildings. I'm sure that, even if there isn't a safe haven there, we'd be better off than near the woods. It'd be easier to search a city for a lost person than the woods."

"Hey, we found her in the end!" Shane reasoned.

"She happened to find her way back on her own. If she hadn't we would have never found her." Rick argued. "But that may not happen again. We need a better area. Here is not an option."

"Just stop arguing! It's not getting us anywhere!" Andrea had interrupted. "Look, maybe we should have a vote. All those in favour?" The others agreed and Rick, Daryl, Carol, Dale, Andrea, T-Dog and the kids rose their hands. "All opposed?" Shane, Lori and Glen rose their hands.

"Well it's seven to three." T-Dog announced. "Notion carried."

"Fine!" Shane vented, annoyed at the sudden turn of events. "But don't blame me if they decide to throw us to the walkers!" Rick ignored his aggravated friend so he could deliver their verdict to Denise.

"Alright Denise, we'll help you. But no funny business." Denise raised his hand to his his chest.

"Cross my heart."

* * *

"Hey Sophia!" The said girl turned to Carl in question. Right now the pair were with their mothers, foraging around an upturned car in search of food, water, meds, clothes and anything that could be useful.

"What's wrong Carl?" She asked, not really understanding why Carl wanted to talk to her. Sure they were best friends, but there was something called a time and a place.

"Well, I just found this and thought you might like it." He said, holding out a plastic unicorn. She eyed the horned horse in surprise, taking it into her hands, tucking her doll under her arm.

"Where did you find it?" Was the first thing she asked. She wasn't sure whether he just found it lying around or it was in the arms of a girl who lost her life. Her conscience was weird like that.

Carl rubbed his arm in embarrassment. "Well, when my dad went after you, I got to trying to find you something to...you know...take your mind off of being chased...and I just ruined that." He facepalmed himself and sighed. "I'm not very good at this."

She smiled, despite still not knowing where the toy came from, and held it to her chest. "Thank you Carl. It was very sweet of you." She said. Sure it still could have come from a dead girl, but Carl took the effort to find her something to cheer her up. It made her feel inclined to keep the mythical beast even more.

Carl smiled in relief. He didn't want to accidentally set her off into tears, remembering being chased by those things alone in the woods. _"She's a lot tougher than she looks." _"Do you want to go play in the RV? Andrea killed a walker in there, but I'm sure they got rid of the blood by now."

"Sure...Let me just tell my mom first. I don't want to worry her." The Grimes boy nodded in understanding as she approached her mother who was not anymore than three feet away. If another hoard comes, then Carol was sure to get her girl under the same car this time.

* * *

T-Dog slumped onto the side of the RV and slid down next to Denise, who was told to rest and have some of the water they found. A little reward that Carol kept pushing them to let him have. Denise turned to the noise. "Who am I going to be talking to?" He had learned everyone's names, but obviously couldn't see who he was talking to. He had to hear the voice in advance.

"T-Dog here." He answered, clutching his bandaged arm in pain. "Man this is killing me!"

"What is?" Denise asked again. If he was able to see, sure it'd be obvious. T-Dog had had to remind himself this before he accidentally snapped at him.

"I cut my arm on an old car earlier. Pretty deeply. It's a long son of a bitch too." T-Dog had replied, about to show the blind man before realising that that would be pointless. Denise reached behind him and handed a square, packet to him.

"Those are painkillers. It's just Paracetamol but Doc suggested that everyone in my group carry at least one pack at all times." T-Dog's face lightened up as he, gratefully, took the handed packet, grabbing a water bottle as well.

"These days, paracetamol is like fucking morphine! Thanks man!" He said as he took three pills and downed them with the water.

It took the space of five minutes to get them working. The African-American man guessed that it was because he hadn't eaten a lot recently. The group had few resources when leaving the CDC, so had to ration what they had. So naturally finding this abandoned mess of traffic was like stumbling into a gold mine for them.

The pain in his arm had reduced significantly. Sure it still felt like his arm was being repeatedly stamped onto the cold, hard ground. But the painkillers had dulled it from being stabbed repeatedly. So the difference was like the old world and the new to him.

"Your welcome." Denise replied, quite content to just sit and enjoy the feel of the sun, taking the painkillers back from T-Dog, who had handed them back.

* * *

"Shane!" Dale called to the bushy haired man. Shane turned to the old, bearded man, a frown on his face.

"What do you want, Dale?" Dale sighed, glancing back at the RV where Andrea was, most probably, trying to put her gun back together. And probably failing.

"I'm worried about Andrea...I feel bad for taking her gun from her..."

"But you had to." Shane interrupted, leaning into a Mercedes next to him. "She didn't even know how to turn the safety off until Rick showed her. Why you telling me this?"

Dale sighed, taking his fisherman's hat off to run a hand through his short, grey hair. "Do you think you could teach her to use it? She wants to be able to hold onto it and I don't feel right taking that away from her." Shane glanced back from the empty car, shrugging.

"I suppose I could. But it'll have to much later. Like, when we're sure there are gonna be no walkers around."

"Oh I didn't doubt you'd say that." Dale said, turning back to the RV. "I'll tell her, then I'll get to finishing that hose. I almost got it anyway." Shane nodded, going to look into a ford focus, then recoiling as the dead women started hissing and clawing to get to him.

"Sneaky fucker!" Shane exclaimed, grabbing a discarded wrench from the ground and thrusting it into the walker, smashing the window in the process. The women's head had caved in from the hit.

Shane sighed, reaching over her and taking the gameboy on the seat next to her. He turned it round in his hand, before shrugging and pocketing it. If this mechanic of there's is as good as Denise says he is, then he's sure that this guy can fix this up for Carl and Sophia.

* * *

"You find anything?" Glen asked, approaching Daryl. Daryl raised his eyebrow, suspiciously at the Asian kid.

"Just some rope, a bag of peanuts and some toothpaste. No brushes, just tha paste. Why? You got somethin'?" Glen nodded, pointing to the van that had crashed into the back of a Jaguar.

"Yeah, get Rick and Shane. It's a pretty good find." Daryl sighed as he dragged his hand through his greasy, dirty hair while Glen made his way back to the van.

"I don' think I'll ever understan' that kid." He said to himself, going off to find Rick and Shane.

* * *

"Rick." Lori had called, walking up next to him.

"You okay Lori?" He replied to his wife, pulling out a map from the glove compartment of a range rover.

"I'm fine. But why are we trusting that new man?!" She had demanded, quietly. The sheriff sighed, pocketing the map.

"'Cause he's a good a chance as any at finding somewhere safe."

"But what if he's lying?" Lori had asked immediately after, still uncertain with the idea. "Carl could be in danger if we trust this man. Sophia too." Rick turned to face Lori, his eyes obviously showed that he wasn't going to argue with her.

"If he were lying, he'd have let the walker get Carol. She's alive and as far as I'm aware he hasn't done anything to show he's not trust worthy." Just as Lori was going to argue some more, Daryl and Shane walked over from the blue Nissan that Shane was checking earlier.

"Rick. That Glen kid says he found somethin'. Wants us to check it out. C'mon." Daryl had explained, briefly, leading the pair back towards the van. Rick turned to Lori, nodding his towards Carol.

"I'll talk to you later Lori, I need to see about this." His wife sighed, before turning to help the other mother. Rick then turned tail and followed after his best friend and strange friend.

"You still not trusting Denise?" Carol asked as Lori approached, pulling a blue blanket from an undistinguished vehicle, folding it quickly to put in her bag.

"If that's his real name." Lori responded, glaring over to Denise who was talking to Dale and T-Dog right now.

"C'mon now. He saved my life earlier. He even went and gave T-Dog some of his painkillers. He's been nothing but helpful. Besides, why would he need a fake name? In case we go to the police?" Lori shook her head, bending down to check inside a green Ford Fiesta.

"How I wished we still had a police force. All we got left of them is Rick and Shane." She looked over at the pair she mentioned. "How I wished things were simple again."

"We all wish that Lori." Carol replied, folding a shirt that seemed like it might be Dale's size into her bag. "I'd pick get a few punches from Ed over nearly ripped apart by walkers any day."

* * *

"So what did you find Glen?" Shane asked, having been confused from being pulled away by a promising looking Ferrari. Glen pulled onto the handle of the back doors of the van, smiling with a tinge of pride.

"I found this!" He swung the door open and the three gawked at what was inside.

"Holy Hell! Look at all those weapons!" Daryl had exclaimed looking at the rifles and small arms lining the weapon racks on each side of the van. On the floor of the van, there were a few bags that probably contained ammo and right at the back of it laid one riot shield.

"This all could protect us from walkers for weeks!" Rick had joined, picking up one of the rifles. An M4A16 Carbine. "Who the Hell was driving this thing?!"

Glen shrugged, looking round the side. His face paled a little and had to hold back his urge to throw up.

The door to the van was open, and half dragged out was a man in a camouflage, military outfit who's legs and waist were still in the driving seat, and his front half was dragged, at least, ten meters away from that same seat, onto the grass. His arms are nowhere to be seen, but his torso was in tact, and his face was moving slowly, his jaw moving up and down in a rhythmic pattern.

"I guess he was." Glen said, turning back to them, pointing back the way he just looked. The others decided to look as well.

"Military. No wonder." Rick mentioned, turning back to see Shane pull out an aluminium foil package.

"Yeah. Would explain the military rations too. They have food!" Daryl looked around, slightly curious but had that hunting tone in his eye, a smirk present on his face.

"Guys. Military vehicles normally travel in groups of three or four. I reckon that there's a couple more o' these vehicles." The three nodded, glancing around. "Let's see if we can find 'em."

"Right." Rick said, taking a combat knife from another bag, admiring that serrated blade. "I'll go finish him off. We can give him that." Shane shouldered a couple of the bags and took a hold of four of the assault rifles.

"I'll start moving this stuff back to the RV..."

"No! Carl and Sophia are playing in there! Put them in the truck." Shane nodded, turning round and walking towards said vehicle.

Glen and Daryl walked further into the graveyard of vehicles and Rick moved towards the walker...well crawler...if that.

The creature itself was staring at the sun with it's milky eyes, blinking ever so slowly. It's face was blank as always, but it was trying it's best to roll over. As if the sun was hurting it. It's jaw was always moving, hoping to ensnare a potential victim in it's death grip.

All of a sudden light was blocked out by a shadow, cast by the tall man in front of it. It's eyes shot open, hissing weakly at the intruder, daring it to come closer.

Rick sighed sadly, kneeling down next to the undead Pvt. Pvt. Wayne, was the name stitched to the jacket. "I'm sorry this happened to you, Wayne. I'll make sure you go to a better place...where ever that is." Were his final words as he thrust the combat knife into Wayne's eye socket.

* * *

ML54: What do you think?

Carol: What's the point of having the soldier's name up there?

ML54: I just felt like putting it up there. Anyway, reviews are always nice. Flames aren't.


	3. Chapter 3

ML54: Okay, this is where my mind works weirdly but I wanted to do this.

Sophia: Do what?

Lori: Whatever it is I don't think it's good.

ML54: I don't own The Walking Dead in any format.

**On The Road Again**

"I think I found another van!" Carol called to behind her, looking to the van that had crashed into a thick tree in the little woods next to the highway. After Shane and Rick had finished taking supplies from the first van they had everyone split into groups of two to search for more.

Carol was with Daryl, who approached her, looking over to the van. "Good find Carol. Let's check it out." He replied, jumping down sliding on the grassy hill. "I'm surprised you didn't argue when you were paired with me. I thought you'd go with Sophia." He mentioned, off-handedly.

"I think she's in Carl's capable hands." She answered, walking down, stumbling slightly. "Besides, the pair of them are the closest of friends. You saw how badly Carl begged to help you search. He's not going to let anything happen to her." Daryl shrugged and yanked open the doors to the van.

As soon as the doors opened, a decaying soldier burst out and tackled him to the ground.

"Walker!" Carol cried out, pulling the hatchet she was given out of the belt she was wearing. Daryl folded his arms under the undead soldier's chin to keep his mouth back.

THWACK! Carol then rushed up and smacked the creature off of Daryl. Unfortunately the walker recovered quickly, standing again. Luckily though, it was slow enough for Daryl to pull his knife out.

The walker limped forward two steps before Daryl thrust his knife into it's temple. Right through the brain, killing it.

Daryl sighed in relief as he pulled his blade out of the, now limp, walker as it fell to the ground. He still heard hissing though and turned in time to see Carol throw the hatchet she held from behind her head, right into the top of the undead's head, splitting it in two. "That was close." Carol said, falling over with exhaustion.

Daryl helped her by grabbing her hand and pulling her up, as if he were pulling up a partner on a deer hunt. But he had to remember that she wasn't a hunter before he punched her in the shoulder for scaring away potential food. "Yeah it was. Nice kill." He said, walking over the van and sighing.

"What's wro...oh..." Carol had finished, looking at the two carcasses in the van, ripped open and bloodied. She glanced around and saw that there was no weapons in this one and the food packages were right by them. "I wonder why they didn't turn."

"There are bullet holes on the roof. I reckon that they couldn't get the door open and popped themselves. The other one must've got bit and they were trying to help. See? Only two bullet holes." Daryl deduced, pointing to the two small holes in the roof. He also pulled a pair of guns from the soldier's hands and grabbed the food packages while he was there.

"If the world didn't end, you'd make a hell of a CSI." Daryl rose his eyebrow as he left the van, brushing his boots against the forest floor as he left.

"CS what?" Carol shook her head as they walked back up the bank to see what the others had found. They set a deadline on about an hour before going to this train. They wanted to arrive and set up a camp before nightfall.

"Never mind."

* * *

"Sophia! Look!" The blonde girl squinted in the direction Carl was pointing to see some familiar letters on the back of some sort of van, but couldn't seem to remember what it was.

"What am I looking at? It looks like a van. A pretty one, but just another van." Carl turned to her and rose an eyebrow.

"You're joking right? That's an ambulance." Sophia stared blankly at him, trying to see what was so special about that.

"What's an ambralance?" She asked, completely mispronouncing the word. Carl, still looking at her like she just grew a second head, answered.

"Ambulance. The vehicles that the doctors use to get around. There might be medical supplies in there. How do you not know what an ambulance is?" Sophia shrugged as they, carefully, walked up to the said vehicle.

"I was home schooled by my mom. I guess we never got that far. I don't think I've seen one before, I may have, but I don't remember." Carl suddenly understood and nodded. Sophia didn't come from the same background as him. Ed probably didn't want her learning that people can come and drive her to the hospital so he could have a permanent, unregistered punching bag.

"Yeah. That makes sense." They got to the vehicle and Carl nodded to Sophia, drawing a hammer that he got from the toolbox, Sophia taking a spanner. "On the count of three, we open it up and attack anything that falls out. Ready?" The girl nodded, taking a test swing of the spanner. It weighed a bit more heavily at the end pointing away from her, so more force was going to be applied to whatever would be on the receiving end.

"Ready!" She quietly answered, grabbing one handle with Carl.

"One...Two...THREE!" He yelled. They both swung their doors open and saw nothing come out.

Cautiously the pair peered inside and found a dead man lying on a stretcher with a drip in his arm. There was also other techy looking stuff in there, but they were more interested in the first aid kits and needles located in front of the man.

"Wow. Five first aid kits. That should last us a while." Carl had mentioned, taking out his backpack and placed some of the needles lining the little shelf of the ambulance into it. Sophia nodded, getting in the van and looking over the man.

"He was bit on his leg." She replied, glancing at the bloodied hole on his leg. The man's eyes were closed so she assumed he was dead.

How wrong she was.

As soon as she reached for the first kit, his milky eyes shot open and he grabbed her outstretched arm. Sophia screamed as the creature tried to pull her in for the bite.

"Sophia!" Carl exclaimed, dropping his bag and looked for his hammer quickly. He found it next to the bed and grabbed it as Sophia smacked the creatures arms with the spanner.

Sophia's whacks were doing nothing to deter the monster of it's lunch though and Sophia couldn't fight it's grip forever. Suddenly, she was pulled in.

She could now feel it's hissing and spittle on her exposed neck. She clenched her eyes shut, awaiting the pain that she was sure to follow. She just couldn't believe that she was going to die now! When she thought it'd be safe.

She was surprised, however, when instead of the creature sinking it's teeth into her jugular vein, she felt coagulated blood spatter onto her forehead and hair. She was pulled up, out of the creature's now limp grip, and turned to face a distressed looking Carl looking over her. She turned and saw the man now had a hammer stuck in the back of his head.

"Are you okay?" Carl asked, worried over her well being. Not only was she his best friend, but the adults trusted them to be on their own while searching. He'd be livid if anything happened to her because of him.

Fear had gripped her and she couldn't speak. She felt as if her number was up as the walker had pulled her into it's clutches. This was the second time today that he had asked her this and she just couldn't hold her emotions in anymore.

She cried. And she cried hard. She threw her arms around Carl, trying to find some comfort in his embrace. She'd have gone to her mom, but she didn't want to get lost. "I-I don't...I c-can't...I don't want this...I don't want to b-b-be here! C-Carl w-we're not suppos-sed to b-be doing t-this... Look at u-us! We're k-killing to s-survive!" Carl had no idea what was going on. One moment he was checking his friend for injuries, next he's being used as a tissue.

He wrapped his arms round her in response, after a while, sussing that she can't be too hurt. "C'mon...It'll be okay...Please don't cry Butterfly." Okay. Where did THAT come from? Carl wasn't used to comforting others so tried to comfort her the way his mother used to. He talked in a hushed tone, took a gentle approach and told her things he knew was bullshit.

But the thing he called her was new. He has never heard anyone, ever call someone else butterfly. He's never really gave butterfly's any thought before. Why now? And why would he call Sophia, Butterfly?

"_Well. I guess it's because she's delicate. A butterfly is pretty and graceful, but if touched too roughly could break apart." _The amount of poetry that as going through his head almost made him vomit. He was sure that it was the poetry anyway, it might have been the freshly killed corpse on the stretcher.

He was glad that Sophia had calmed down now. She stopped crying, but didn't let go. If anything she pulled tighter against him. Like her world would fall apart without him. He seemed to be the only thing that made sense to her at that point. She wasn't supposed to be close with adults like she was with Andrea and Dale.

In fact, before this started, her mom had told her to stay away and not talk to grown-up strangers. Now it seemed to be the only thing keeping them alive. But Carl was her age. Someone who she should be friends with.

A friend she wouldn't have if it wasn't for these things.

The realisation hit her like a meteor. If it wasn't for the apocalypse, then she'd be at home right now, either being taught how to spell by her morose mother or getter smacked around by her angry father. She wouldn't be with her best friend in the back of a defiled ambulance in the centre of a, not so abandoned, traffic jam.

And in a lot of ways she preferred to be in the latter then the former two.

* * *

"You sure you didn't want to go with Rick?" Shane asked Lori for, possibly, the eighth time. He was certainly confused by the women. One minute she didn't want anything to do with him, the next she would be talking and walking with him like they were best friends.

"I'm sure. I don't really want to talk to him right now." She replied, checking the car on her right. "Empty. I guess the people in this car must have taken a run for it." Shane looked over and saw that the car, except for the seats and steering wheel, was completely bare.

"I'm glad someone had the sense to. Whether they made it out is another story." He responded, looking into the car next to him.

He then recoiled in horror at what he saw. "L-Lori..." The women turned to her husbands best friend and saw him point into the car. "That's just sick."

She looked into the car and gasped, clamping her hand over her mouth. For inside the people carrier was a baby, not four months old...

...with it's throat slit.

"Fuckers! Sick! Twisted! Satanic! Fuckers!" Shane screamed out, smashing that very car's window with the butt of his shotgun. He had found a silencer in the bag that had, remarkably, fit onto his weapon.

As soon as the glass fell over it, the baby's milky eyes open and a hiss escaped it's throat. Walker.

"S-Shane." Lori, shakily, said pointing to the baby rolling it's head her way and snapping it's jaws in her direction. It was, however, stuck to it's baby chair.

Shane turned to the baby and his eyes bugged out. How?! That baby couldn't have been bit! The car was shut! "That's not possible...it's not bit...it can't be bit..."

Lori grabbed his arm and handed him her knife. "We need to tell the others. Can you...can you do it?" Lori asked, pleadingly. He looked back at her, not really wanting to go through with it, and nodded. He wanted to protect her and Carl and...everyone really. Even if it meant he had to do difficult things to do it. He had to make the tough decisions. The others wouldn't...okay maybe Daryl could. But that was beside the point.

He took the knife by the handle and crouched in front of the walker baby. "Round everyone else up Lori. I'll catch up." Lori nodded in understanding and turned to leave. She knew this would be difficult to do. It was a baby for God's sake.

Shane sighed. "It's a shame. You had to be born into this World..." It hissed in reply, trying to lunge forward, but failing. "...It's not fair for you. And if there is a God, when I get up there I want to know why he put this fate on all of us." It hissed again, but stopped struggling. As if it were listening to him.

"You know...I was always jealous of Rick. He had a wife and son that loves him very much. I really wished I could have that. But I know I can't." The thing fell silent, staring at him and he stared right back.

"I actually thought about killing him a while back...Saying he got dragged off by walkers...Like we all will eventually. But I couldn't go through with it. He's my best friend. It's not like he got all that just to spite me. He's been trying to get me with someone since he first got engaged. Saying we only live once. That's never been truer has it?" The walker baby's head lurched forward to try to snap at his arm, but then the seat restrained him.

"I'm sorry you never got a life. I just hope you will somewhere else." Shane took the knife and reared back ready. "Sleep tight little angel." Then it's number was up.

* * *

The group were done searching the vehicles and were now in their own, driving down an old country road. "It's not too far from here. Near another place called Macon apparantly." Rick had mentioned, getting a marked, brailed map from Denise.

"Macon?" Dale asked, being in the RV with him, Carl, Lori, Sophia, Carol, Glen and Andrea. Daryl was on his motorcycle driving alongside and the rest were in a couple of cars they found. "Wasn't that the place you said you came from Glen?"

"Yes it was. I remember there were a few survivors. If we can, we should look for them." Shane pointed forward at a motor inn that had a lot of wooden boards and dumpsters acting as walls.

"I don't think we need to look far."

* * *

Ben was sitting on top of the RV in the centre of the inn. He was a teenager in a sports jumper and school attire, holding a gun ready. He sighed and looked to the others in the group. In total there were eight of them. Himself, Lee, Clementine, Duck, Kenny, Katjaa, Lilly and Carly.

Suddenly, he heard a few vehicles stop outside the walls and looked over. "Guys! There's people here!" Lee, the African-American man wearing a blue shirt and jeans, sport a small beard looked up to Ben.

"How many? And what do they want?" Ben looked through the sight and saw Glen get out of the RV and put his arms up in a surrender sign.

"LEE! LILLY! CARLY!" Lee recognised the voice and told Ben to lower the weapon.

"Holy shit! GLEN IS THAT YOU?!" Clementine, the small, slightly tan 8-year-old girl sporting long, curly hair and a baseball cap, as well as wearing a pink hoodie with Brooklyne written across jumped up to Lee.

"Glen's here?" Kenny asked, moving the barrier open to let him in. They were all greeted by a, very much alive, Glen. Kenny was a middle aged man wearing a baseball cap himself as well as a green shirt and jeans.

"Am I glad you guys are okay." Glen mentioned, pointing his thumb back towards his group's RV. "I was hoping we'd find you. We're heading for a train and were hoping you guys would come. You can trust my group. They're the friends I was telling you about."

Lilly, the women with black hair sport a leather jacket and grey trousers stepped up. "The fuck you taking a train too? Sunny California?" Glen, sheepishly, rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well, actually, yes. We heard there was salvation there. And I was hoping you'd come with us."

Lee thought about as most eyes turned to him. He had become the 'leader' of the group sometime ago and usually made the decisions. "Well, I don't know much about his friends, but he's stayed alive just fine with them so I guess we should."

"Agreed." Ben said, too quickly. "Staying here would just mean us losing food quicker. It'll be gone again otherwise."

"But, as Lee said, we don't know most of them. Hell Ben YOU don't know Glen." Lilly replied, eyeing him suspiciously.

"I think we should go." Kenny said, Katjaa a women with blonde hair and a zipped up cream jacket and jeans and Duck, the 10-year-old boy with a chequered shirt and jeans came to stand next to him. "The RV's up and running."

"Then it's pretty unanimous." Carly, the brown-haired women in an office ware attire had stated. "Let's get in the RV and go. I'd quite like to get out of here. Too many bad memories."

"Alright. Let's get go..."

"WALKERS!" Glen heard Daryl shout. Lilly, Lee and Carly quickly got there weapons.

"Get in the RV, we'll help out!" Lee told Kenny. He nodded back and got everyone else in the vehicle. The other four ran round the barrier to see about twelve to fifteen of them clambering out the woods. Daryl had been shooting a silenced glock 17.

Unfortunately, the weapons the three were holding weren't and they just decided to go. "LET'S JUST GO!" Lee ran back to their RV while Lilly and Carly joined Glen on his group's one.

Lee ran in and slammed the door behind him. "Follow that other RV! Go Kenny go!" Kenny nodded, put the big vehicle in gear and drove forward as the other vehicles did.

As the pick-up truck at the back of Rick's group's line finished, Lee's group's RV crashed through the planks of wood that couldn't take the weight of the van and soon joined the end of the line.

The vehicles soon gained a good distance from the walkers as more came out the forest. "Dear God, they got us just in time." Katjaa mentioned, looking back at their temporary home. "We wouldn't have survived all those walkers."

"Lee?" The man looked back to Clementine who grabbed his hand. "Are these people going to be nice? Better than the farm people?" Lee bent down on his knee so he was eye to eye with the girl he found just a month or two before.

"Glen's with them. So I'm sure that they're good people Clem." Clementine nodded and smiled. "Whether they're good people or not though, we're on the road again."

* * *

ML54: Yeah, I enjoyed the game they made and decided to make an alternative to episode 3.

Lilly: Your group's getting a little big. Don't you think?

ML54: I'm still deciding who to kill off. Oh well, review but no flames.


	4. Chapter 4

ML54: Boy did I have to make some difficult choices. My first character deaths.

Lee: You say 'difficult choices'. What you mean is that you pulled their names out of a hat!

ML54: I don't know why you're complaining. You're not dying.

Kenny: He's still sore because he dies in episode 5.

ML54: SHH! SPOILER!

Ben: I guess I'll do it. ML54 doesn't own either Walking Dead's, but does own his OC's.

**Big Crowd**

"I think we found our train!" Dale announced, pointing to the said locomotive coming up. Lilly, in the passenger seat, smiled to herself slightly.

"Well, looks like your guy was telling the truth." She replied. She decided to get to know the people in the RV a bit more to try and get a trust going between their groups. So far everything was going okay.

Soon the RV had stopped and Daryl, on the motorcycle, pulled up next to the train. Two people in the first carriage looked over to them. The girl in a purple, football jersey and black leggings, blonde hair and small scar above her eyebrow sighed.

"Trust Denise to bring back a whole platoon of strangers, huh Doc." She said, shaking her head. Doc, the man in a white lab coat stained by old blood but surprisingly clean jeans and shirt with short brunette hair and a pair of glasses rolled his eyes.

"C'mon. I'm sure they are okay. Maybe someone I can test my stamina booster on?"

"Doc for the last time! That's a can of Red Bull you found in a super market!" Doc took out a vile of said liquid, eyes wide in shock.

"What?! Someone stole my idea?!" Charlotte, the girl, had to take in deep breaths to keep herself calm. She didn't want to attract walkers.

"No. Red Bull didn't even invent them. I don't know who did. Just...Let's greet our new guests, okay?" Doc grunted, throwing the vile away. "Hey! We still could've used it!"

"Stop arguing you two." Denise interupted, approaching with everyone else in tow. "We got to introduce ourselves to our new friends. RALLY THAT MEANS YOU TOO!"

"Yeah, yeah I hear you!" Rally replied, walking round the side of the carriage. Rally wore a blue jumpsuit that mechanics usually used and had a beard and grey hair. "Names Rally. Mechanic."

"I'm Doc, I guess you could say I'm in charge of the medical problems." Doc said when the group turned to him.

"I'm Charlotte." The girl followed, shrugging her shoulders. "I just stand around and look pretty."

"And you all already know who I am." Denise replied, walking forward with a pipe in front to find objects in his path.

"Well, I could help you with that train if it needs working on." Kenny offered, approaching Rally. "I know a bit about mechanics."

"I can help too." Dale pitched in, going to get a tool kit from the RV. "The sooner this thing's finished, the better."

"Well that'd be awfully helpful. Thanks a bunch." Rally replied, climbing a small ladder up to the main train. "Just need to get the engine patched up and it should be good to go by tomorrow."

"That's good. I want to get to this safe haven as soon as possible." Charlotte added. Rick stepped up.

"Then the rest of us should set up camp for tonight. We've got food and weapons if you need them. And a lot of other supplies too. Doc, Carl and Sophia found some medical equipment you can sort out." Doc nodded.

"Excellent."

"We need to get out only what we're gonna need tonight though." Shane suggested. "And put the rest on the train. That way we're ready as soon as we wake up."

"Good call. I'll help you unload that stuff." Lee agreed, getting a good vibe from the group as a whole. They went from a group of eight to a group of twenty three in just about an hour. They always said there was safety in numbers.

"Yeah, I'll help too." Ben responded.

"The rest of us will set up camp and do our own thing until dinner then." Lori replied. Receiving no bad responses, the group got to work.

* * *

"Hi..." Clementine said, approaching Carl and Sophia with Duck beside her. It was Duck's idea to try and make friends with the other two children in the group, but she was nervous.

"Hello." Carl smiled to the pair. "I'm Carl and this my friend Sophia." Sophia smiled as well, trying to put the nervous girl at ease, to no success. Duck, however, sensed this and answered for the both of them.

"It's good to meet you. I'm Duck, and this is my friend Clementine." He introduced, putting a hand on her shoulder. Clementine suddenly remembered that her friend was here with her and started to relax a bit. It was much easier to talk to new people if there was someone you already knew there.

"Cool. Do you want to play? We've got Connect Four and Snakes and Ladders." Carl suggested, looking at the two games. "We have more, but the grown-ups felt we'll only need the two for tonight."

"Sure, sounds like fun, right Clem?" Duck smiled to Clementine who had now relaxed a lot more and smiled back at him.

"Right." As Carl and Sophia got Snakes and Ladders set up, Clementine whispered "Thanks Duck" into his ear. Duck grinned. Sometimes being a bit eccentric was a good thing.

* * *

"Alright!" Rally cheered, looking at all the green lights and running engines. "All we gotta do now is remove the turned over carriage and we're ready to go!"

"That's a relief." Kenny replied, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "I thought this would take a lot longer."

"Guys..." Dale, worriedly tried to get their attention. The other two in question turned to him. "...this thing's very loud so woul..."

"WAKERS!" The three turned downwards to the group and saw, on the horizon, a horde of the undead limping towards them. "WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW!" Dale got a hold of a pin remover (Sort of like a wrench), and jumped off the carriage.

"Get everyone in! I'm going to see if I can disconnect the cars!" Kenny rushed to the side of the carriage to help people on. Rally was going to join, when Rick came up and stopped him.

"Me and Kenny can handle this, get this train going now!" Rally, reluctantly, went to the drivers carriage.

* * *

Meanwhile, Daryl, Shane, Carly, Ben and Lilly all got a weapon and started shooting at the crowd. "Holy shit! There's a lot here!" Carly exclaimed, shooting an elderly walker in the head. "Where'd they all come from?!"

Ben turned and pale when he recognised one of the walkers as wearing the same uniform as him. He had black hair though. "Travis..."

"What?!" Shane asked, shooting that same walker in the head.

"Those are the ones from around the Motor Inn! They followed us all the way here!" The others kept shooting, but still held surprised looks.

"Persistent bastards!" Daryl added, shooting a Wall Mart worker walker dead. "Must have made some friends on the way!"

* * *

Dale was pulling on the pin that connected the two cars together with everything he had, but just didn't seem to have the strength to do so. "C'mon you son of a bitch!"

Just as he thought it was hopeless, help arrived in the form of a young, blonde women. Andrea gripped the pin with him and together, they pulled the pin loose and very soon was yanked free. "C'mon Dale, let's go!"

"Right!" Dale turned to leave...

...right into the jaws of a walker.

"NO!" Andrea screamed as the walker sunk it's teeth into Dale's neck. Dale cried out in pain as blood started to overflow from the wound. Andrea was about to go and help, but didn't notice a second come behind her until the army dressed walker bit into her bicep.

She pulled her gun and shot them both dead, cursing herself for not doing so before, she slumped down next to Dale. Dale turned his head to her, him barely holding on. Just then T-Dog came round with his AK-47 ad was horrified at the sight.

"Just go!" Andrea told him, gripping Dale's hand with hers. "It's too late for us. The cars are free. Go!" T-Dog, with regret in his eyes, tuned and left. Dale gripped back, gazing at Andrea through half open eyes.

"I'm sorry..." He let out, weakly. Andrea turned to him weakly. The infection started early with her, but infection spreads quicker if you aren't eating properly. "I should have let you...stay...at..." Andrea held her arm up.

"No, I'm sorry...You were looking out...for me. You've been..." Andrea let a few tears fall. "You've been like a father to me...I should have...been more grateful..." she sobbed and looked into the magazine of her weapon. The weapon that was given to her by her real father.

"I...have two bullets...I'm not letting either of us turn..." Dale nodded to her, closing his eyes in anticipation.

"I'll...I'll miss you, Andrea..." Andrea cried out, but tried not to prolong it any longer. More walkers were coming for them.

"I'll miss you too, Dale..." She then pulled the trigger. A through and through bullet that burst right out of the back of Dale's head, and covered the back of the train car in his blood.

With that done, more walkers were attracted in Andrea's direction, from the gunshot, her crying and the smell of fresh meat. She then put her gun to the bottom of her chin. "God forgive me..." She whispered as she pulled the trigger.

* * *

Just as Daryl got on, the train started to move. "Hey! Rally, our guys are still down there!" Lee cried, seeing Ben and Carly still holding them off.

Ben turned to Carly, seeing the train moving. "Carly, hand me you're gun! I'll hold them off!" She turned to Ben in surprise.

"Are you nuts! I'm not lea..." Ben swiped her weapon away and pushed her towards the train.

"Yes you are!" Carly, without a weapon, turned to him. "I don't deserve to be safe...I disobeyed all your trust...Just go!" Ben then turned and shot anything that got too close. Carly was confused, but saw the train moving and had little choice in the matter.

She ran. She had turned back after a few steps and saw that Ben had run out of ammo in both weapons and had picked up a big stick to try and smack them dead.

"Carly! Grab my hand!" Carly looked up and saw Lee outstretch his arm to her. Carly glanced back one more time...

...just in time to see Ben on the ground, his stomach being ripped open.

Ben wailed to the sky in agony as the heard of Walkers ripped into his flesh. But adrenaline spurred him onto his last resort plan to keep these creatures off his friend's back. He reached into his jacket pocket with his arms being ignored by the walkers, going for his intestines instead.

You see, Ben thought this was his punishment. He thought that the bandits would leave their group alone if he just gave them some supplies. So he stole them from the inventory and handed them over.

He had begun to feel awful about it, however, and tried to break his connections with the bandits. But was for nought when the bandits threatened him with his friend's heads.

He got a grenade from out of his pocket and lifted it over his head to pull the pin out.

* * *

Carly had grabbed Lee's hand and, together with Shane, pulled her into the car. "BOOM MOTHER FUCKERS!" They turned to Ben's final outburst. Then, about five seconds later, an explosion rang out across the car as many of the walker's limbs went flying around the area they were going to set up camp.

They were surprised, however, when flames had erupted out of the gas and flowed to the vehicles. Apparently, while they weren't looking, Ben had taken a fuel can and covered the area with gas.

Soon the area they were to make camp was a tower of flames and smoke, burning walkers limping a few more steps in the blaze before the heat got too much for their reanimated brain stems to handle and they fell. Those who hadn't been consumed in fire dispersed back into the forests, and those chasing the train had soon given up, it being too fast for them.

Rick turned and did a head count. He knew Rally was in the front and Ben was, most certainly, dead. He counted the four children first: Carl, Sophia, Duck and Clementine. Then he counted the others: Lori, Shane, T-Dog, Glenn, Carol, Daryl, Lee, Kenny, Katjaa, Lilly, Carly, Charlotte, Doc and Denise.

"Where's Dale and Andrea?" He asked the group, thinking someone had to know. T-Dog sighed and answered.

"They got bit, so Andrea shot herself and Dale so they wouldn't turn." Carl and Sophia gasped. They liked Dale and Andrea. Dale was like their grandad and Andrea was like a sister. How could they have died. "But if it wasn't for them, then this train would still be stuck. We'd most certainly be dead."

"Yeah..." Lilly agreed. "...and Ben died saving Carly and taking almost one hundred of them with him. All three of them are heroes."

"Right." Rick agreed, getting the groups attention. "Once we get a chance, we'll set up a memorial for them. They deserve it."

Carly decided to keep quiet about Ben's last words and was formulating something to say when they, inevitably, asked what they were. She wanted him remembered a hero, not a suspicious culprit of some crime she didn't know about.

The four kids were with their parents right now. Carl was with Lori as Rick made his way over. Duck went to Kenny and Katjaa, Sophia with Carol and Clementine with her father figure rather than actual father, Lee.

"How many of the supplies did we get?" Shane asked, breaking any silence that was to follow. Daryl walked over to the left side of the carriage that they left the supplies and sighed in relief.

"Looks like we got most of it. I think it's just the fuel from the truck that we left."

"That'd explain the boom." Doc nodded, seeing the sky start to blacken around their very temporary camp. "But I don't know how much fuel this thing has."

"Not enough..." Rally sighed, coming out of the driver's cabin. "We'll only get to the outskirts of the city, not the safe haven. And according to Merle, there's a fuck load of them out there." Daryl shot up in shock, as did most of Rick's group.

"Wha' did you jus' say?!" He demanded to know. Rally scratched the back of his head in confusion.

"There's a fuck load of them out there?"

"No, BEFORE that." T-Dog clarified.

"According to Merle?" Rally asked in even more confusion. Daryl's shocked look didn't falter.

"MERLE'S ALIVE?!" He exclaimed. Just then a voice came over the walkie talkie on Rally's belt.

"_Daryl? Tha' you, ya loud mouth?" _They all heard the man that Rick, Daryl, Glen and T-Bone went back to Atlanta for. _"HA HA! Wha' I tell you pussies back there?! Dixon blood baby!"_

* * *

ML54: I hope you guys don't hate my choice in character deaths. I just picked them randomly out of a hat, I swear!

Lilly: Forget it. Just review him.

Merle: I don' min'! I'm back Bitches! So don' ya flame or ya gonna get it!

ML54: I would also like to apologise for, once again, getting T-Dog's name wrong. I really shouldn't be doing it at this stage. Sorry.


	5. Chapter 5

ML54: I hope you enjoy this chapter because...dammit it was tough to write.

Duck: Why? What happens?

ML54: Um...You'll find out. Lori, disclaimer.

Lori: ML54 doesn't own the Walking Dead, but does own his OCs.

**Fun Gone Wrong**

Alone in a desolate area in the forest was a single walker who, in past life, was probably a farmer. Proved by the overalls he wore. He limped forwards into a clearing, only driven by the constant need to consume the flesh of the living.

It came across a noise soon, and limped down the train tracks to find it. As the Walker got closer, the noise grew louder, so it trudged on in the hopes of finding a wounded animal or, better yet, person.

But it found neither, what it found was rest as it was crushed under a large train that powered along the tracks heading in the direction of a large city in the distance.

"I ain't cleaning that up." Rick mentioned to Kenny, having seen him run the thing down. Kenny smirked back.

"Ah, and here I thought we were friends." Rick would have laughed, but it didn't seem to be needed. The pair had gotten along quite well, having a similar situation of having to take care of a son and wife in a world gone to crap.

"Yeah well you couldn't tell me to clean that crap up if you were my BOSS." Rick shot back, enjoying the playful banter. It was good that they had a much larger group. They had a better chance of surviving bigger hordes of walkers if they had had bigger numbers as well.

Plus it made for good flow of conversation and made the world feel a little bit more normal.

Suddenly, a red light started to flash behind him. Rick took off his hat and ran his hand through his greasy hair, sighing in fustration. "Looks like we'll have to stop here and get gas." Kenny nodded.

"Right, tell the others to get ready. So it's you, Shane, Daryl, Denise, Lily, Lee and Glen going?" Kenny asked, making sure he knew who was being left.

"Yes. Don't worry, I don't think there's going to be many of them here in the forest. Stop it now and we'll head off." Rick answered, making his way back to the carriage. Kenny sighed in response, pulling the brake and shutting the engine off.

"I hope you're right." He said, then got up. "Actually I hope that guy, Merle, is right."

* * *

"Alrigh'!" Daryl announced, throwing his crossbow across his back. "You guys stay safe while we're gone. Be ready to head out as soon as we get back."

"Just be sure to bring back thirty litres. Any less and we won't make it back." Rally emphasised. Rick nodded, picking out a silenced carbine.

"We'll make sure we won't. Just be sure to get it in quickly. We may need to get the hell out of here, fast." Shane picked out two shotguns, passing one to Lily. Denise stuck to his pipe, not really trusting himself with a gun and Glen picked out a silenced pistol.

The group had gotten used to using the silenced weapons and tend to avoid the other weapons that don't have one like the virus itself. Don't want to be attracting too many.

"Good luck, dad." Carl said, hugging his father. He then went to hug Shane too. "You too Uncle Shane." Shane smiled, fondly at the name he was given. He wasn't actually Carl's uncle, by any means, but him and Rick were like brothers. Guess Carl caught on.

"Please come back safe Lee." Clementine pleaded, hugging her father figure. She had given up hope of finding her actual parents a long time ago. No matter how many times she tried to get a response from her walkie talkie, she got nothing in response. She even got Rally to look at it for her. Rally had said the device was still in working order.

"I will Clementine." Lee replied, looking up at Kenny. "You look after her while I'm gone."

"Don't you worry, Lee. You kept Duck safe, it's only fair I do the same for Clementine."

"Well, now's a good a time as any to move out." Daryl told the group, turning his attention to the city a fair distance away. "Let's move."

* * *

Carol watched as Sophia tagged Clementine and began to race away as the little, tanned girl tried to get any of the other three that were playing. It seemed that they were being responsible too. Carl had dug a circle out around them and said that this was the area in which they had to stay.

Lori smiled, sitting next to Carol. Rick and Lee may be the leaders of their respected groups, but it appeared that her son took the responsibility of leader for the child's group. She was proud of him for setting out safety for the four of them, but still wondered where this matured from. Before he seemed so ready to disobey her every rule, now he seemed to be making his own.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Lori heard Carol say from beside her. She turned in question. "How our kids are growing up. It seems as if they're growing a whole lot quicker too."

"I guess they don't have a choice..." Lori mentioned, off-handedly. "...in a world filled with people eating other people, a child hasn't got much time to enjoy their youth."

"It's not fair. I remember when I was younger, my father used to take my family to a little lake house on the outskirts of Macon. Me, Ed and Sophia used to go too, before Ed started drinking." Carol had to wipe her face as she felt a tear ready to fall. Lori sighed in agreement.

"Yeah. My mom and I used to do a weekly cake making day. We'd always make seven cakes every week and she'd let me have one after dinner everyday." Lori glanced beside her as Carl sat there, watching as the other three continued the game of tag.

"Hi mom." Carl said, nodding in her direction. He didn't take his eyes off the group...or he didn't take his eyes off Sophia. Lori noticed this and smirked to herself.

"_Yeah. They are definitely growing up." _She thought to herself, nudging Carol to share her thoughts. But, it appears, Carol already noticed and was trying to hide a 'that's so cute' face.

But Lori shook out of it. She needed to know some things. "Carl." Carl turned to her in curiosity. "Can I talk to you alone for a bit?"

"Sure mom." He replied, looking towards Carol. "Can you..."

"I'll make sure they stay within the lines. Don't worry Carl." Carl smiled, gratefully, before following his mom into the train car that was, for the time being, devoid of anyone else. But still being watched by T-Dog and Kenny.

Once they were in, Lori turned to her twelve year old son. "Carl...I just wanted to know...Why did you set that line up?" Carl glance out and saw the line she was talking about. He smirked a bit when he saw Duck stop as he got to the line's edge and got tagged on the back by Clementine.

"I don't know. Just didn't want us to get carried away and get chased off into the woods by walkers." Lori didn't seem very satisfied with the answer and she expressed that to Carl who had started to get uncomfortable.

"You'd know why you'd be suddenly interested in the group's safety. Or SOPHIA'S safety." Carl's face flushed and ducked his head down to hide it, but his mom had already caught sight of it. "You can tell me Carl. I won't tell anyone else, I promise. I won't even tell you're dad if you don't want me too."

"Fine. I guess I don't want her to get lost again. I don't want her to be helpless again. I didn't say anything before, but she was almost bitten while we were getting the medical supplies from the ambulance." He looked at his mother's shocked face.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything. But I didn't want you to lose faith in us. We're capable of helping out when needed. We proved that. And I killed the walker." Lori's mind seemed to click there.

"_That must be it! He made his first kill!" _She felt a bit of pride bubble up at the thought of her son saving Sophia's life directly. sure she still had the worry eminent on her mind. But...

"Don't be sorry, sweetie. You handled yourself well out there and Carol's trust was placed well in you." Carl hugged his mother, gratefully, but still had to get some things off his chest.

"And about the Sophia thing..." He paused, waiting until he was sure his mom was paying attention. Once she looked down at him, he continued. "...well I guess I kinda like her a little. But PLEASE don't tell anyone. Especially not uncle Shane! He'll be trying to teach me his lame, pick-up lines again."

"Don't worry, Carl." Lori assured her only son, hugging him close. "Your secret is safe with me."

* * *

"Gotcha!" Clementine had cheered, patting Duck on his arm and running backwards away from him. Carol was talking to Sophia about what was for lunch. It was going to be prepared in a few minutes by Katjaa and Charlotte. Duck turned to give chase, then paled.

"CLEMENTINE!" She gave a confused look as to why Duck was screaming, then turned...

...and ran into a decaying policeman.

Clementine screamed as she fell over backwards and the walker limped towards her. She tried to shuffle back as fast as possible as the others, now aware of the situation, came running round to try and help her as it fell forward to crawl towards her.

Carly and Kenny were trying to aim and shoot at it, but they couldn't without guaranteeing they wouldn't hit Clementine.

The walker was about to pounce as Clementine, too scared to move, clenched her eyes shut. At least she might be able to find her parents.

Suddenly she heard a voice yell out in pain and looked up, surprised that Duck was between them on his knees...

...the creature's teeth around his arm.

"DUCK!" Kenny screamed, before Carl rushed past and slammed his trusty hammer down on the walker's head. The walker let go as Duck fell back, next to Clementine, clutching his wound in pain.

Kenny had immediately scooped his son in his arms, fear in all of his expressions. "DOC! DOC! HELP!"

"Get him in the train car! NOW!" Doc had called back as he ran with Kenny, who ran to the vehicle at the first mention of the the word train. Carl had helped Clementine up and they raced after. It was then that Clementine realised that she had stepped WAY over the line. At least ten meters or so.

"_It's all my fault!" _She cried in her head, eyes watering. _"Duck wouldn't of had to save me if I hadn't stepped over the line."_

Kenny had literally JUMPED onto the car that'd usually need someone to use a step ladder to get onto and laid Duck on the clean mat that Doc had laid out for emergencies. "Dad..." Duck whimpered, looking to his role model. His father looked down, before casting his eyes to Doc who was not three steps behind.

"PLEASE! PLEASE HELP HIM!" Kenny pleaded, starting to break down. Katjaa couldn't even climb onto the carriage without falling to her knees in anguish. Doc nodded, pulling a hatchet out of a tub filled with liquid. Anticeptic.

"I have a theory that should work. It's the best chance he has. I need you to hold him down!" Kenny, in realisation, widened his eyes as Doc got his belt off and wrapped it round Duck's mid fore-arm and tightened it. Using it as a torniquet.

"YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!"

"WHAT OTHER CHOICE DO YOU HAVE?!" Kenny, seeing no other alternative, held down his child's arms with regret in his eyes. Carl, being the leader of the children and feeling responsible, held his legs down.

Everyone gathered round, not sure what was to follow, until Doc threw the hatchet down on Duck's arm, just above the bite. Which was mid arm.

"AHHHHH!" Duck screamed, pain searing in his arm as a large wound opened. The other's all averted their eyes and covered their ears except the three 'operating'.

Ignoring the pleas of pain from the ten-year-old boy below him, he threw the hatchet down again, needing to get it off quickly.

After the second hit, Duck was about to pass out, but he steeled himself. He remembered Ben's teacher who had fainted when Lee cut his leg off. He almost ate his mom. So Duck clenched his eyes shut and bellowed once more in anguish as the arm came off.

Blood started to spurt out of the stump that used to be his arm before Doc wrapped the wound in cloths to try and keep blood in his body.

Duck held on for as long as he could, trying to cling to consciousness as much as he could. He'd be dead for sure if he blacked out. But, inevitably, the pain and blood loss was too much.

The area fell into silence as Duck fell into a deep sleep. Carl quickly felt his neck like his dad had taught him. He could still feel the constant thump of his pulse and sighed in relief. "Don't worry Mr. Kenny. Duck's only sleeping."

"Yes don't worry. I was a professional at amputee patients. I should be able to keep him stable while his blood vessels find their alternate routes round his body. But I may need to do some blood transplants. Do you know his blood type?" Katjaa's eyes lit up in hope.

"YES! IT'S A POSITIVE!" Then her hope vanished. "But neither of our blood types are the same as his..." Kenny punched the floor in aggravation.

"WHY GOD?! WHY?! WHY?! WHY?!" Carl's eyes hardened as he rolled up his sleeve.

"My dad told me that me and him are the same blood type. A positive! Use my blood!" He said, holding his bare arm out. Lori was going to argue, but Carl had beat her to the punch. "No mom! You're not talking me out of it! I should have been watching them! This is my fault, I'm not letting another one of my friends die!"

Doc got out a needle and found Carl's Pulmonary vein. "Alright. But not too regularly. It'll be no good if I have two patients." Carl nodded.

Unbeknownst to them, Clementine had sat with her back against a rock that happened to be close the train tracks. _"Please! Please don't let him die God! If you save him, I promise I'll never let him get hurt again! Please!" _

* * *

ML54: See what I mean...

Carl: BLOODY HELL! YOU CUT HIS ARM OFF!

ML54: I needed something...I don't know, exciting to happen.

Sophia: It's an apocolypse fic. It's not hard to find excitement in it.

ML54: Please don't flame me, people who like Duck. But do review.


	6. Chapter 6

ML54: Welcome to the mid season finale of the Walking Dead, New Hope

Carl: You were going to call it new hope. And what does that mean?

M54: It means that, if this were on the TV, then this is where I'd conclude it for a while.

T-Dog: How does that affect us?

ML54: I no way what-so-ever. Rick!

Rick: I hear you. ML54 doesn't own the Walking Dead.

**Hope**

The other group, the ones that went into the city, sighed in extreme relief when they saw a garage on the outskirts of the city. "At least we didn't have to go far." Lee said, clutching the weapon closely as if a life line. Because, in this day and age, it was.

"Yea'. Bu' don' le' your guards down." Daryl mention, swinging his crossbow to rest in his arms. "It's an old fashion hunter an' prey situation roun' here." Shane agreed, pulling his weapon up.

"And whether we like it or not. We're the prey."

* * *

The moment the walker attacked, T-dog got on the roof of the train and kept watch. It was kind of stupid of them not to in the first place. That walker had gotten quite deep into the camp so easily that, if Duck hadn't spotted it, it could have gotten someone else.

Not that he liked the idea that the poor kid got bit. And he despised the idea of him missing an arm even more, but if it kept Duck alive he'll just have to live with it...

...besides, Merle managed to.

The idea that they now had two people with missing limbs now was quite extraordinary. T-Dog hadn't even heard of anyone missing a body part in the wild and surviving, and now two had.

Well, they still don't know whether Duck was going to live or not. Doc assured them that he'd do the best he could, but Denise had mentioned that the guy was a little off the deep end. What had he meant by that?

He heard a noise beside him and drew his weapon in that direction, only to come face-to-face with Charlotte. "Don't shoot me." Charlotte laughed, pulling herself up the rest of the way.

"Sorry. Just a bit jumpy." She looked at him, sitting beside him, sympathetically.

"After what just happened, I'll be surprised if anybody isn't." She smiled a small smile. "But don't worry, Doc will do everything he can for him." T-Dog nodded, glancing around the camp. No threats.

"I know. I'm just a little worried because, Denise mentioned that Doc was a little off the deep end." Charlotte nodded, eyes downcast.

"I know what he means, but that's nothing to do with actually being crazy. It's just his...dedication he's talking about..." T-Dog turned his eyes to her. "...what I mean is, I once saw this women wander into our camp once, she had five bites but was still holding on. Doc had done everything in his power to help her. Even cut off the bites like with Duck, but she lost too much blood. But he was still trying to help her until she turned and pounced him."

"Was he okay?" She smirked back at him, despite the situation that was at hand.

"He's here now, isn't he? Luckily Rally was next to him and smacked round her the head. Doc had been morose for about a week after. Wouldn't talk to anyone. I know I wouldn't want to. The thing is, he really believed he could save her. And he still holds on to that hope, while Denise thinks once your bit, your dead. That's probably why Denise said what he did."

"So what do you think?" Charlotte ran her hand through her hair and sighed.

"I don't know what to think. I want to believe that everyone has a chance if they get bit, but so far Doc has a 0% success rate. I can see what Denise means, but I just don't want to lose hope." T-Dog accepted the answer and settled to watch the group, keeping silent.

* * *

Sophia had climbed onto the car and approach Carl, who was walking around Duck like a mad man, who was sleeping. Well, she hoped he was sleeping. "Carl..." She called out softly to the Grimes boy.

He halted and turned to the Peletier girl who had entered. "Is everything okay, Sophia?" She nodded and handed him a plate that contained, to Carl's delight, a full meal. It appears that there was enough to give everyone a full plate today. God knew they needed it.

"Doc said you need to keep eating. You've given a lot of blood and you need to replace it. He said eating would help." She settle next to him, as he had sat next to Duck. Carl turned in alarm as Duck rustled in his sleep and pulled out his hammer, just in case.

But, to his relief, Duck had only tried to find a more comfortable sleeping position. Katjaa and Kenny were sleeping nearby, in their sleeping bag. They literally cried themselves exhausted.

Carl had put the first mouthful in and had to stop himself from sighing in contentment, lest he lose the food in his mouth. It's been so long since his last meal, and this was the first time, in a while, he had a full plate of it.

Sophia didn't say anything while Carl ate, content to just stay there. That's when she noticed someone else outside the car. She looked out and saw that it was wearing the distinctive blue and white baseball cap. Clementine.

She seemed to look very upset, but was still contemplating whether to come in or not. "C'mon Clem." Sophia encouraged. "There's plenty of room in here for one more." Clementine sighed, still not showing any positive emotions as she got into the car.

That's when she caught sight of Duck's left arm. Or what used to be his left arm.

The eight-year-old girl's eyes started to swell again as she sat next to duck on the opposite side of Carl and Sophia, clutching Duck's right hand.

Carl turned to Sophia and nodded towards her. "Maybe you should talk to her." He whispered. "She was this close to being bit, like you had been at one point. You'll know what she's going through more than anyone I know."

The blonde girl nodded and moved to talk to the girl. Carl had moved a little further away from them to give them their privacy, but was still close by to keep them safe. It was probably for the best if the four of them stayed here for their safety.

His Mom, Sophia's mom and Rally had left a little while ago to wash their clothes. Rally was the two women's protection. Carly and T-dog were taking it in turns to watch the area, Charlotte was...well he doesn't really know what Charlotte does. Probably the cooking and was packing all the stuff away. Finally, Doc was outside, cleaning his hatchet and disinfecting it.

"Hey..." Sophia said, softly to the other girl. The other girl in question didn't reply, but continued to clutch Duck's hand, tears streaming down her face. "...I know it's scary being in close quarters with walkers...but, like me, you had someone to protect you..."

"The walker should have got me..." The tanned girl reply, without hesitation. She finally turned to the shocked girl and continued. "...I should have b-been following Carl's rules. B-but I broke th-them and Duck paid for it...It should have b-been me..."

Sophia hadn't really expected THAT as an answer, but she should have really. Even though they'd been in similar, near death experiences Carl hadn't lost a body part for her. But Duck had lost his arm and potentially his life for Clementine.

"C'mon. I'm sure Duck wouldn't want you to be blaming yourself. He didn't have to take the bite for you. But he did anyway..."

"But why?!" Clementine interrupted. "Why should he had bothered?! It's not like you guys will be losing anyone useful if I went! At least Duck had some upper body strength to smack those thing over the head! I can barely hold myself up!"

"You can ask Duck himself when he wakes up..."

"If he wakes up." Clementine sadly replied, still clutching the older boy's hand as if THAT'D save him.

"No WHEN. Carl's given a lot of blood. He's not going to let Duck die."

* * *

In the city, about four walkers were wandering the roads, trying to find what little food there was left for them. But was futile, they hadn't smelled or heard anything out of the ordinary for a long time.

Which was why, when they heard a window getting smashed nearby, they HAD to see what it was.

They limped, hungrily towards the noise, hoping to find a meal from it. That was when they saw potential victims. Seven of them. They hissed and limped with new found vigour.

Shame it didn't last long as, as silently as one of Daryl's arrows, four shots were fired from four of their guns and their heads had just been plugged with the metal projectiles.

"Alright, I think that's all the ones nearby, now let's get this gas!" Lee said, urgently. Shane and Lily were keeping watch while the others went in.

"You dreading this?" Shane turned to the women, surprised she was talking. "I don't know what it is, but I feel like something bad is going to happen." Shane nodded, suddenly feeling very alert.

"I know what you mean. Only four walkers? I know we're on the outskirts of the city but it's a big city. There should be tonnes more." Shane then shrugged. "Not that I'm complaining any. It's just a bit suspicious."

* * *

Inside, the group were delightfully surprised to see that fuel had already been stored in jerry cans. Each jerry can seemed to be able to hold five litres, so they only needed six. However carrying them might prove difficult.

"Gee. Those things are going to be heavy. We need to find something to lift them." Glen mentioned, walking round with Daryl in tow. "Start looking round and try to find a shopping cart or something."

"I think I got something." Lee announced, spotting a large shopping cart against the back door. Across the door was written, Beware Dead Inside. The shopping cart itself, though, was already loaded with ten jerry cans. "But there's a problem, it's the only thing keep whatever's in there, in there."

"I thin' it's pretty obvious wha's in there, Lee." Daryl said, approaching the handle-less door in contemplation. "If there is somethin' in there, it hasn' heard us, so I thin' we can slip ou' withou' attracting it's attention."

"Right." Rick said, him and Glen grabbing the cart and pushing it, freeing the door.

Nothing had tried to get out the door, so they felt it was best to take it quietly and slowly. Everyone stepped as carefully as possible, safe for a few steps. Before remembering...

...they have a blind man here.

Said man, Denise, slipped over and hit an old radio. Now the noise itself was bad enough, but now the radio had sprung to life. At FULL volume.

"_YEAHHHHH__!" _Screamed from the radio as the worst possible yet most ironic song possible started to play from the radio. Dead by My Chemical Romance.

Suddenly walkers started to burst through the, now free, doors. All sorts of them cramped up in there. From children to elderly, from man to women, from high class to homeless burst free at last and had immediately spotted the living that freed them. Unfortunately they know not for gratitude and only hunger.

They turned to Denise and were horrified to see his leg had been impaled on a piece of glass. "JUST GO! I CAN DISTRACT A FEW!" He screamed at them, picking up a lost gun. "Just go!"

The others, with regret, ran out the door with the fuel before the walkers could give chase. Rick lanced back one more time at their groups saviour as his legs started to be treated like chicken wings by the walkers.

They had quickly told Shane and Lily to run, and so they did. As they did though, they couldn't help but notice that Denise was missing.

Shane had asked what had happened and why he heard music. Rick was going to explain until an explosion cut him off. They all turned back and saw that Denise, in his final moments, shot the pile of fuel can, causing them to erupt in flames.

Rick was wondering how Denise knew the fuel cans were there, until he realised that Denise had been facing the opposite way to them as Denise was looking around. He had planned on doing that from the start.

The others, without saying a word, left the area. Sure a bind man would ba a burden, but Denise had brought them all to the train. He had given them a doctor, a chance, a mechanic and a whole lot of people they could trust.

He was a hero as well. It amazes them how selfless the people in all their groups were. Dale and Andrea knew they were dead when they tried to get the train cars disconnected. Ben had staved off a lot of walkers from the train. And Denise, well, none of them could ever repay him for what he's done. Saved Carol and brought their groups together.

* * *

Clementine was still clutching Duck's hand, even after an hour of him being unconscious. Doc sighed looking at the boys parents.

"I can't tell for sure if he's stopped breathing or not. But if he has, then we have to..." He couldn't finish the sentence, but the boy's parents knew what he meant.

Clementine did too and it made her feel even worse. It should be her dying and turning, not him. It shouldn't be Duck's parents crying over losing their only child. Sure she wouldn't have been able to stand it if Lee cried for her, but Lee wasn't her dad so he was more likely to get over it.

Sophia and Carl were sitting on his other side, their saddened faces telling her that they knew what he meant. "If he does turn...I'll do it...I can't let you two go though with it..." Carl stepped up, still clutching his hammer that had saved Sophia's life.

Clementine let go of her hero's hand and place both her hands on either side of his face. "Thank you..." She whispered, kissing his forehead.

She held there for a few seconds, before pulling back. He still had colour to his face, which was a good sign but he'd been unconscious for too long. Lori and Carol were prepared to get the grieving parents out of there so Carl could finish it.

Before Duck woke up.

His eyes slithered open to their natural brown colour, a smile present on his face. "Hey guys..." He said, weakly. But that was just because of the blood loss. Kenny and Katjaa turned from Lori and Carol once they saw their boy sit up.

Alive.

"DUCK!" Kenny had pretty much cheered, picking up his son and hugging him for everything he's worth. Katjaa doing the same. The others smiled in relief at seeing no fever, no weakness nothing.

Doc had done it. He had saved Duck's life. The infection was gone.

* * *

ML54: I decided to end this chapter on a happy note, unlike others in the past.

Daryl: I can' believe ya' jus killed off Denise.

ML54: *Shrugs* Blame the hat.

Lee: That hat is evil. Anyway, review but don't flame him.


	7. Chapter 7

ML54: This is my newest chapter!

Charlotte: *Rolls eyes* Really, cause I thought you just reposted chapter one here.

ML54: You know. I don't HAVE to consult the hat.

Charlotte: ...I'll shut up.

ML54: Good. Duck!

Duck: Okay. ML54 doesn't own the Walking Dead in any way.

**Can't be Afraid**

Clementine looked out over the forests as she sat on the open side cart of the train. She hadn't seen any walkers for a while, so the scenery looked tauntingly peaceful. Almost mocking her, saying that things will never go back to normal.

"_And even if this is just a dream, and I'll wake up to my mom and dad, then I'll never had met Lee or Duck or Sophia or Carly or anyone here." _She thought to herself. She fiddled with the the walkie talkie in her hand, seeing if it was turned on and it still had power.

Everything seemed to work, which just made her feel worse. Why haven't her parents called her? Told her they were okay?

Well she knew why. Lee had told her what was on the answering machine at her house. It hadn't been easy and she still teared up a little everytime she thought about it. About how sad he said her mom was... How she said her dad got bit... How he had bit her...

The moment he told her, she obviously refused to believe it, saying he was lying. But everything he said would make sense. Why her mom and dad hadn't used the walkie talkie. Heck did they even HAVE a walkie talkie themselves?

But that didn't make who WAS talking on it any better.

The man talking said he had her parents and that he was going to save her. That he was waiting in Savana...

"_Why can't people just leave us alone?" _She thought to herself, glancing at Duck who was given the only mattress to sleep on. _"Everyone here's suffered enough. Duck's been really hurt, can't they leave us alone." _

She glanced back outside, not noticing that Duck was stirring in his sleep.

* * *

_Duck woke up in the train car, but strangely..._

_...no one else was there._

"_Hello?" He asked, shuffling out the bed, realising that he was still wearing the shirt with his blood all over the left side. Where his arm used to be. "Hello?"_

_He got no response, so decided to explore. He was the adventurous type after all._

_He walked down the dark abyss that was the back of the car, only to hear some tearing and squelching noises. "Hello?" _

_Suddenly, out of the darkness, a walker had pounced him but, being the active kid he was, he managed to hop back just in time. It was then that he noticed who this walker was..._

_...his dad._

"_Dad?" He asked, eyes starting to swell. Half of Kenny's face was missing, his eyes were dull and lifeless, he had blood running down his jaw and down the front of his shirt from a recent feast._

_Duck walked backwards, scared out of his wits. He kept glancing around and had set his eyes on Lee's axe. But, where was Lee?_

_Duck shook the thought from his head and grabbed the axe with his good arm. That was when Duck realised the problem. He had one hand, it was a two-handed weapon._

_Duck shook it out of his head, seeing his undead dad approaching. Once the creature was in lunging distance, Duck used every bit of strength he had and swung the axe round, slicing into the side of Kenny's face like he were cutting an orange._

_Duck broke down at the sight of his fathers re-death. He couldn't believe he had just killed his dad! How did this even happen?!_

_The sound of crying caught his attention and he turned to see the abyss had now become quite bright. There was nothing else there..._

_...except Clementine._

"_Clem?" Duck asked, approaching the crying girl. Then, once he got close, he slipped over and fell onto his stomach. His face head planted onto the wooden floor, but he had a liquid to help protect his fall. _

_Blood._

_He looked up and saw the source. Clementine was bleeding from her stomach. She was crying loudly, clutching the wound with her left arm, apparently holding something in her right. "Clementine?" He asked, softly, as to not scare her. She turned to him in fear, and shook her head._

"_Don't get...get close...I-I'm...I'm bit..." Duck's eyes widened when she let go and saw that her stomach was ripped open. His dad must have done it. He was the only one with her._

"_No! Don't worry Clem! I was fine! You'll be too! Doc!" Duck had cried out, grabbing the girl by her shoulders and then placing his hand on her stomach, to try and stop the bleeding._

"_They...th-they ran Ducky...Once I g-..." She stopped and coughed badly into her, now free, hand. "...got bit...they took off...they'll come back..." She cried a bit as Duck grunted, trying to close his fingers were blood had started leaking. _

"_I-I'll make su-sure I...I won't e-eat you..." She, with her remaining strength, pushed Duck away from her. That's when he saw what was in her right hand. _

_Lee's gun._

"_I love you Duck..." She then put the gun to her chin and pulled the trigger._

"NO!" Duck shot up, in a cold sweat, looking around. No-one seemed to notice his outburst, as they all appeared to still be asleep. Duck was about to put his left hand to his forehead, before remembering that there was nothing there anymore and used his right hand.

"_That's the third night in a row!" _Duck thought to himself, falling back on the mattress. _"It was in this train car this time. But it always ends the same. Me killing my dad, and Clementine killing herself." _

When his brain processed this, he looked for the two. His dad, to his utter relief, was hugging with his mom, both asleep. Kenny also seemed to have his whole face so Duck presumed he was alive.

But it was when he found Clementine's sleeping bag empty, that he began to worry. He glanced around and saw no evidence of there being walkers around, so decided that she might have gone to the bathroom or something...

...well, if you can call a bucket in the far corner a bathroom that is.

Duck, deciding that his thoughts were no place to reside for the night, got up. Though he seemed better at getting up in his dreams than reality. It appeared that getting your arm cut off takes a lot out of you. Luckily it didn't hurt anymore...

...well it did, but not a lot. It was more of a dull throb now. Something, Doc assured, would go soon.

He managed to get onto his legs and, once on them, found it was easier walking then it was getting up. He walked a few steps as if his arm was still there. But he had to remember it wasn't, lest missing pains started to become a problem.

He soon saw who he was looking for. Clementine. He was relieved, once again, by the lack of hole in her stomach. _"Course, that could have very well happened today..." _Duck though, going to sit next to her.

Clementine jumped when Duck came to sit next her, having not noticed him come over. "Sorry. Just me." Duck said, looking out at the landscape. Clementine nodded, returning to fiddling with the walkie talkie.

After a little bit of silence, Clementine spoke up. "Do you have a story?" Duck looked at her in surprise. She never wanted to here his stories. She had told him they were stupid and...well, he did have to agree there. He sucked at story telling.

"Not really." Duck shrugged. "I suck at them." Clementine looked down in guilt.

"I'm sorry I said that to you. I was just sad that day." Duck sighed, looking towards the eight year old. She sure did make his head hurt. One minute she was sad, the next happy and there were those rare occasions that she showed her angry side.

"You don't need to apologise. It's not like I was going to be a storyteller when I grow up." Clementine looked back at him, starting to get comfortable with the conversation. It was one of the rare ones that she managed to get a word in too.

"What did you want to be?" Duck rubbed the side of his head with his right hand, his stump just resting on the wooden floor on his other side.

"Well...I wanted to be a fisherman like my dad." He replied, shocking himself if anything. He actually had never thought about what he wanted to do. Though there were a couple of times in school where he said he wanted to be a Power Ranger.

"That sounds like fun." The boy nodded, glancing back to his dad for a bit, smiling fondly. His dad was the best dad a guy could ask for. He kept him and mom safe, he always made sure to feed them before himself and...his dad put up with him.

"What about you? What did you want to do?" Clementine looked back, a little shocked. He never asked her a question before never mind one about her.

"Well...I'm not really sure..." She replied, blushing slightly. Duck looked back at her laying his stump on her shoulder.

"That's okay. It's not like we have to pick a job tomorrow." He shrugged. "If anything, the only job any of us will get is walker killer." He saw her look down after the last comment and felt bad. "Sorry..."

"No it's okay." Clementine replied, softly. "Do you think it's okay to kill them?" Duck held her gaze, yet a confused expression crossed his face. "They used to be people. Like us."

Duck was going to reply, before remembering his dream. Of how it felt when he killed his dad. He let his mouth hang open a bit, making Clementine wonder what he was thinking. He then let out a breath and replied.

"No...They are people. But they're cursed people." The young girl nodded her head to get him to carry on speaking. "Like if it happened to my dad. He'd still be my dad, but he'd be possessed by something. Making him forgot who he was or who I was." Duck had been trying to figure what his dream meant for so long and now he felt it all made sense.

He was afraid to do it. Afraid to hurt the person behind the walker. He remembered his dream self crying at the sight of his father like that in the first place.

But now, he realises, that he can't be afraid. It was fear that got Shawn killed. His dad had picked him up, but ran away once he saw how many where surrounding Shawn. Lee was going to help, but the fence gave in and Shawn was bit.

And it was his fault that Shawn got killed. He swears that Shawn haunts him sometimes, like he's the one causing these bad things to happen. Like Shawn was the one who told that dairy man to shoot his dad.

Clementine, surprised by how quiet Duck was being, glanced at the stump that was now his left arm. It was just so...scary to think that this was the only way to stop the infection. But what if any of them got bit on the neck or the stomach. They can't just cut those off...not that it's okay to just hack away arms and legs.

Clementine let more tears fall. She thought she used them all when Duck was first bitten. Then she surprised herself when he woke up. Looks like her tear ducts are ready for round three.

She forgot that Duck was even there until he wiped one of her tears away with his remaining thumb. "Why are you crying Clem?"

"I-I...I'm sorry." Duck tilted his head to the side in confusion. "I di-didn't stay in the circle...You wouldn't have n-needed to sa-save me if I did..."

"You make it sound as if it was an enchanted circle. A circle in the dirt wasn't going to keep that thing out. He was going to get closer anyway." He wiped a couple more of her tears away once they came down. "The circle was only a precaution. It wasn't safety."

"I-I guess...But why did you save me?" Duck suddenly felt his face flush and looked down to hide it. He knew WHY he did it. It was obvious from his dream. But he wasn't going to tell CLEMENTINE this.

"My dad said he'd look out f-for you. And you're my best friend and that's what best friends do for each other. We take a deadly bite from a walking dead person then have to get their arm cut off to make sure that they're okay." Duck explained, causing Clementine to giggle a bit.

"I'm not sure that's what my old friends and I did." A sudden pang occurred in her chest. She had completely forgotten about her old school friends with everything that's happened. Were they okay?

Of course they weren't. The TV had told everyone to go to Atlanta. That place already went to hell. _"Everyone I knew before are dead...Mom, dad, Sandra...everyone." _She felt Duck wipe away another tear and cursed herself for having gone to crying again. She felt like a baby.

"It's okay to cry you know." Duck said, as if he read her mind. She looked up and saw that his eyes were starting to tear up as well. "Everyone's lost someone. If you haven't then you're pretty lucky."

"Did you lose someone?" She asked, having been thrown off a bit. Duck still had BOTH his parents. Who could he have lost?

"My grandpa...He lived in Atlanta..." Duck blinked to get the tears out. "I don't think he made it..."

"Oh..." Clementine responded, not looking him in the eye. She'd been jealous that he still had all his family, but of course a family isn't just a mom and a dad. There's grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins to think about too.

Neither had said anything for a while, content to have tuned back around and watch as the forests gave way to farmland country side. Unfortunately the cows and sheep were all torn up and eaten alive. It was a bit of a beauty killer.

"When did you stop being excited all the time?" Clementine asked, trying to get a conversation going again. He smiled a bit, nodding towards his stump.

"That's were being a kid got me." He replied, giving her his full attention. He didn't really want to look at the animal carcasses. "I figured that I needed to grow up a bit. You, Carl and Sophia managed to."

"Oh..." She replied, looking to the floor in embarrassment. Of course it was going to be something to do with his missing arm.

"When's your birthday?" He asked, causing her to look up in confusion. He shrugged. "Just trying to talk about something cheerful."

"Well...It's October 3rd."

"That's pretty cool. How old are you going to be?" Clementine thought this was a little bit happier than what they were talking about before. Plus getting to know her best friend a bit more would be good.

"Nine. What about you?"

"Mines December 11th. And I'll be eleven." He replied, getting up. "Want to go back to the sleeping area. I don't really want to see any more farm." Clementine nodded, getting up herself. She was quite surprised by how easily Duck got up with one arm. He hasn't had practice or anything.

She smiled though. At least he was strong. They got to their respective sleeping areas and laid down, not really ready to go back to sleep. "Are you scared, Duck?" She asked, feebly. So much for trying to keep the subjects happy.

Duck looked back and replied. "I always was Clem..." She blushed a bit when he used the nickname. But why was she blushing, she didn't know. Luckily it was still dark and Duck couldn't see it. "...but we can't be. Not anymore. We have to be strong. To survive for those who didn't."

"Right." Clementine replied, falling to sleep with her head clear.

* * *

Her walkie talkie was left at the entrance of the car. _"I'll save you soon..." _The male's voice came over until the train hit a small bump in the track and the walkie talkie fell out the train, smashing when it hit the ground.

* * *

That was the last tie for Clementine to her old life. But she knew that that life couldn't come back. She had to live with her new life. With Lee, Rick, Carl, Sophia, Carly, Duck and everyone else.

So long as they're here she won't be afraid.

She cant be afraid.

* * *

ML54: I don't know really. I just felt that Clementine seemed a bit sad in the last two chapters and needed a bit of cheering up soon.

Rick: So how long is it going to take to get to California?

ML54: Hold your horses there, we still have a while to go. If I know my geography Atlanta to California is quite the trip. I don't even think there is a train that goes all the way there.

Clementine: ML54 would appreciate reviews. He will not appreciate flames though.


	8. Chapter 8

ML54: Well, another character death in this one...a pretty tough one.

Kenny: You going to kill a kid?

ML54: No...I don't own the Walking Dead. And this is my own take on the plot to No Time Left, but credit to the plot goes to the maker of the game.

**Savana**

The train soared through across the tracks on a one-way-trip, undeterred by anything that stands in it's way. The only thing that could affect it's momentum was Kenny, who was with Duck in the front of the train.

Kenny had been thinking that Duck had been uncharacteristically quiet. It was un-nerveing, But he was sure that Duck was okay. He was on his lap, watching what Kenny was doing with the train and learning how to use one. "You okay Duck?"

"Yup." Duck said, cheerfully, looking back at his father. "Why do you ask?" Kenny nodded towards the stump on his left arm.

"You had your arm cut off..."

"And you got shot." Duck interrupted, turning back to the controls. "Guess our family's just tough. What's this do?" He continued, pointing to the lever on the side.

"That's the brake. We only use that when we shut off the engine to stop the train." Kenny replied, smirking at his son's comment. Katjaa did a good job patching his bullet wound.

Rick then entered the car with Lori. "Hey you two. How's it going?" Rick asked, smiling at the kid who appeared to be having fun.

"Good. There's a brake here." Duck answered, pointing to said brake with his stump. Lori shuddered a bit when she saw it, but said nothing. She was just happy he was alive.

"Well we might have to use it soon enough. We need to find more food." Kenny rose a brow at what Rick said.

"I thought we had plenty of food. What happened to that?"

"Me, Carol and Katjaa went over the food and found that it'll last us about a week." Lori answered, causing even more confusion for Kenny.

"That sounds like enough to me." Rick pulled out a map and pointed some points out.

"I don't think anyone's going to be controlling the bits that change the paths of the trains. If that's the case, me, Shane, Lee and Daryl it could take us about a month to get to California if we're lucky." He had said, looking out the front window.

"Well, we're coming up to a city called Savana. We might be able to get supplies from there." Kenny mentioned. Duck hopped off his lap.

"I'll tell the others." Duck said, heading out the door to the other car. Rick and Lori went out to stand on the front of the train while Kenny got ready to stop it when they needed to get off.

"So, you wanted to talk to me about something?" Rick asked his wife, who nodded.

"Right..." She paused, still not quite believing she was about to say this. "...I think, maybe, you should teach Carl...how to use a gun."

Rick's eyes widened in surprise. Lori was so against the idea when Carl asked back at the quarry. "What changed your mind?"

"Carl's been maturing quite a bit recently. He's become a mini you." Rick smiled at that comment. Carl was always a bit of a daddy's boy, despite Rick not being there all the time. "He been keeping the other kids safe and even gave his blood to Duck."

"You don't need to convince me Lori." Rick replied, smirking a little bit. "Me and Shane will be happy to teach him."

* * *

"Hey everyone!" Duck declared, causing everyone to look at him. " Mr Rick said we're going to be stopping at a place called Savana to pick up supplies!"

Clementine couldn't help but gasp slightly. That's where the guy on her walkie talkie said he was waiting. "Fair enough." Lee had replied, causing fear to creep into the little girl. "We'll need all the supplies we can get."

"I think, this time, we should all go though." Lily suggested. "That way we can carry more stuff and we're able to carry more on our backs."

"Agreed." Shane responded, grabbing something. "And Duck, get over here." Duck, confused, went over to where the deputy was. "Let's see that stump."

Still confused, he held it out. "Hmm. Here." He felt something being strapped on and looked to see that Shane had used a lot of duct tape to stick a knife onto his handless arm. "That should help protect you and don't worry. You mom and dad said it was for the best."

"Thanks Mr. Shane." Duck replied, admiring the blade. It was about six inches long and two inches thick. It was also stuck quite tightly, so it won't fall off once it stabbed something. At least now he can help Carl kill these things.

Carl and Sophia looked up from their game of go fish to see Duck with his replacement arm. Sophia smirked a bit, laying down the five Carl had asked if she had. "I hope he's careful when he's hugging people." Carl smirked back, but shook his head.

"You shouldn't make fun of people with disabilities you know." He replied. She shrugged back.

"I don't think it's that much of a disability anymore, as it is the ability to give deadly hugs. Got any fours?"

* * *

"Duck?" The boy turned to see Clementine standing there. "Can I talk to you for a bit?"

"Sure Clem." He replied, following her to the back of the train car. He started to feel a bit scared, knowing this is where his nightmare indicated that the girl in front of him committed suicide. He felt a little anger towards the group that just ran away from her, but had to remind himself that it was a dream. He'd sound crazy if he shouted at them that they let her die.

Once there, he had to remind himself to keep calm since they were in the area where all the supplies were kept. Including the weapons.

She sighed, almost afraid to tell him, but steeled herself anyway. "C-can you...can you stay with me while in Savana? I don't want to be alone." Duck sighed in relief in his head. He blessed his lucky stars that she wasn't bit, even though he knew she wasn't. It's strange what dreams can do.

"You wouldn't be alone. Lee will be there." Duck replied, before seeing her down look and quickly added. "But don't worry. I'll be there for you as well."

Clementine smiled and hugged him, catching him completely off guard. "Thanks Ducky." Duck, confused by her gratitude for nothing really, hugged back regardless.

"You're welcome."

* * *

Once they got out into the city, they saw no walkers for a while. They all carried a weapon, silenced guns. Except for a few. Lori held a hatchet, Carol had her own, Charlotte had a machete, Carl had his hammer, Sophia had her Spanner, Doc held a carving knife, Rally had a pickaxe, Duck had his knife arm and Clementine was using a metal baseball bat.

They walked through the town, each who didn't have a melee weapon had a silenced gun and Daryl also had his crossbow, never had gone anywhere without it. They all looked everywhere, trying to deem where they'll find food.

"Well, this look's like a waste o' time." Daryl had declared, looking to the others. "It's a ghos' town here. It's been looted an' abandoned."

"Yeah..." Lily replied, lowering her weapon. "But we may as well search a bit longer. Just so we can say we tried."

"Besides." Lee added. "We won't see another town or city for quite a while. There's no point in abandoning hope so soon."

"Maybe we should have some of us move back then?" Carl suggested, causing the group to look at him in surprise. He's usually one to WANT to look around a bit more. "Me, Sophia, Duck, Clementine and our moms should head back."

"Yeah." Clementine agreed rather quickly. "It'll be safer for you to get supplies then."

Rick thought about for a moment. That's when he realised that Carl and Clementine were right. The positives of this plan heavily out weigh the negatives. "Alright. Le..."

"**DING DONG DING DONG!" **The group looked up and saw a shadowed figure look at them before taking off, carrying a bag with him. That's when they realised that the figure had rung the church bells.

Suddenly, they heard moaning and groaning. "AH SHIT!" Shane exclaimed, shooting a nearby walker, climbing out of an upturned car. "THAT GUY LITERALLY MADE ENOUGH NOISE TO WAKE THE DEAD!"

The group turned and soon found that they had been surrounded by them. "SON OF A BITCH! THAT NUT JOB IS TRYING TO KILL US!" Doc exclaimed as he stabbed a nearby one's eye.

"RUN! NOW!" The group, despite better judgement, split up. Carl had managed to go in the same direction as Lori and Rick. Shane was with Lily. T-Dog was with Doc and Charlotte. Daryl went with Carol and Sophia. Kenny managed to go with Lee. Carly managed to find Glen and Rally. Clementine had been taken down an alley way with Katjaa.

But Duck was no-where to be seen.

* * *

"C'mon Clementine, this way!" Katjaa urged Clementine on, going down the alley on the left. She held Clementine close as the walkers all walked past, having not spot them and the smell of the dirty alleys masking the pair's smell.

Once the last one past, the two let out a sigh of relief. Katjaa's eyes then bugged out as she realised...

...Duck had gone missing.

"Sweetie, did you see where Duck went?" Clementine then started to worry. She hadn't seen him.

"N-no. There w-were a lot of them." Katjaa sighed.

"It's fine Clementine. Let's try and find the others." She turned to lead the girl out of the alley.

"I think you have someone I'm looking for." Said a strange man who stood in front of her, holding a gun to her. Clementine gasped, hiding behind Duck's mom. It was the man from her walkie talkie.

Katjaa looked to see the bag that the shadowed figure held. Her eyes narrowed, holding her arms out over Clementine. "You're the one that rung the bell tower. You could have killed us."

"No..." The strange man smiled, still holding his gun. "I could not have killed all of you. But, you see, you're not all here now, are you?" Katjaa was about to ask what he meant until a loud shot rang and she felt a blistering pain in her chest.

"NO!" Katjaa fell backwards in shock as Clementine screamed this. Then the man grabbed Clementine and covered her mouth.

"Shh. She'll be asleep very soon." The man then ran off, Clementine trying and failing to get the man to put her down.

* * *

Duck heard the shout, and hacked the next walker's face in half. Turns out, using this blade was very easy. All he had to do was pretend that he was throwing his hand around. He'd already killed like six. Not that he was happy about being alone.

That's why he was inclined to find the source of the scream.

He ran through the network of alleys that he ran through. He smirked as he saw the walkers try to keep up, but running was his element. He was only able to be tagged because they were in a circle.

He hid behind a wall as the walkers passed. Once the last one did, he allowed himself to catch his breath. When he turned he found the source of the scream...

...his mom.

"MOM!" He cried, dropping to his knees, trying to stop the bleeding. But she stopped him, still being awake shock not letting her sleep yet.

"It's no good Ducky...I was shot in the stomach...Doc can't handle bullet wounds..." The boy turned to his mother, tears starting to stream down her face as she handed him her silenced pistol.

"Where's Clementine?" He asked, looking around. "She was with you."

"A m-man...he shot me...and kidnapped h-her." Duck took the weapon. "I think...h-he went down the left h-here..." Duck let his tears fall, but his mom cleaned then with her hand.

"I-I'm happy you're..." She coughed a bit, blood coming from her throat. "You're alive...You've grown up s-so much..."

"I'm scared mom..." He admitted. "Please don't leave. Don't leave me or dad. We can't...we won't..."

"You must..." Katjaa interrupted. "I...I don't want t-to be o-one of them..." Duck nodded, glancing over his shoulder just in case a stray walker came through. None.

"I...I-I can't be a-afraid..." He told himself, remembering the conclusion he came to the night previous. "I..." Before he knew it himself, he had pointed the gun to his mother's head.

"Please close your eyes mom..." Duck begged, letting more tears flow. "I-I don't..." His mother nodded, shutting them. Duck clenched his own eyes as his right index finger pulled the trigger.

Silently, Katjaa's forehead was opened by the bullet and she went limp. When Duck opened his eyes...

He cried. He sat there, clutching his mother's corpse, unable to do anything else...

...until he heard Clementine scream.

His eyes hardened as he stood, putting Katjaa's gun into his pocket. "Y-you're going to pay!" He vented through clenched teeth. "You killed my mom and stole Clem! I'll kill you...or die trying!" With that, he ran along the alley, stabbing a stray walker's temple on the way out.

* * *

ML54: *Sighs* Well, it gives me something to abse my next chapter on. I didn't want to kill Lee, so I had to change the story of No Time Left a bit. But the plot is still the same.

Lee: Hat?

ML54: Hat. Please review, but don't flame.


	9. Chapter 9

ML54: It's time. This is, I hope, going to be a good chapter.

Rick: You've posted four chapters in, like, three days.

Lori: This is his fifth.

ML54: I know I'm doing this a bit quickly, I just found alot to write about. I think it's come to the end of the season soon though.

Kenny: Well, before that, ML54 doesn't own the Walking Dead.

**Rescue**

The others heard the scream and, about five minutes after, managed to find their way to the alley way. "This is definitely where I heard it." Glen said to the others, leading them down the alley way. The others looked around every corner.

"Right. So after we find Katjaa, Clementine and Duck, we need to get out of the city." Kenny had ordered the rest. "I ain't staying in this city with that lunatic."

"For once, I agree with Kenny." Lily mentioned, nodding her head. "We'll just have to find another city."

Lee, who was travelling next to Glen, turned round the corner and let out. "Oh no..."

"What is it?" Rick had said, him and Kenny pushing to the front.

"KATJAA!" Kenny cried, looking to his wife. She had still been bleeding, but a walker was seen eating from her stomach. Well, it was before Kenny had shot it in the head. "NO!" Kenny fell to his knees beside her crying.

The others stood in the entry way, unsure what to do. Well, until Shane came forward and picked up a shell casing.

"This wasn't a walker's doing." He told the group, kneeling next to the grieving husband. "She was shot."

"In the head?" Doc asked, looking to the bullet hole in Katjaa's skull. Shane shook his head.

"No. This one..." He said, pulling the bullet out from Katjaa's stomach. "...went into the abdomen. Whoever shot her in the head, put her out of her misery."

"Kenny..." Lee said, kneeling next to his friend. Lily had kneeled on his other side. "...we'll find who did this..."

"She's missing her gun." Lily said, catching the other's attention. "She must of handed it to someone."

"If I know her..." Kenny let out a sob before continuing. "If I know her like I think I do, she would've given it Duck..."

"So maybe Duck's with Clementine." Carl suggested, looking down both sides of the alley, ready to alert the others of threats.

"I don't think so. I only saw Clementine with Katjaa." Lori told her son, looking to Kenny with sympathy.

"I saw the shadow man follow them on the roof." Sophia mentioned, causing the other to look to her. "Well, mom was carrying me so I saw him jumping around."

"So..." Lee started in anger. "The way I see it, this man killed Katjaa and kidnapped Clementine!"

"_You're very observant, Lee." _They all heard from Rally's pocket. They turned and saw that the radio that Rally had adjusted had caught this man's signal. _"Yes, I have Clementine. I'll give her a better life." _

Lee snatched the radio from the the man in anger. "Listen you sick murderer! If you think I'm letting you get away with taking the kids you've got another thing coming!"

"_You're one to talk about murder, Lee...Remember Larry and Doug." _Lee felt his anger rise at those comments, as did Lily with the mention of her dad. _"You left Doug to die, opting to save Carly instead. And you didn't even try to save Larry..."_

"I was going to try and save Doug and Carly! And Larry had a heart attack and we didn't have any of his pills!" Lee argued. The voice tutted at him.

"_You don't deal with these situations very well, do you." _The voice sighed. _"Well, if you want her back, come to the Marsh House Hotel...But beware the walkers. If you're not here by sundown, we'll be leaving."_

"_PLEASE HELP ME LEE!" _They heard Clementine cry from the radio before it fell silent. Kenny stood, glaring at the radio before nodding.

"That son of a bitch will pay!"

"Guys." Everyone looked at Carl. "We're still missing Duck..."

"I have a feeling that Duck might've been the one to finish it." Shane said, indicating towards Katjaa. "He's probably been following the man too."

"So we find this asshole. We find Duck and Clementine!" Rally declared, turning with Lee and Kenny taking the lead and following them out.

* * *

Duck crouched in the alley way leading to the Marsh House Hotel. He had been near a radio in an old, abandoned house that had one when it came to life. He couldn't believe his luck.

He looked out and cursed under his breath. The hotel was surrounded by walkers. _"That shit head must have attracted them over here! How am I supposed to get past this?!" _

He watched as walker passed walker, moaning and groaning. _"I wonder how they know who's walker and who's not...I don't think they're smart enough to just know...and some of them look very similar to how we'd normally look."_

He sniffed through his nose, still trying to clear the thoughts of his recently killed mother, then almost gagged. It smelled horrible out there. _"WAIT! SMELL! They can smell someone who's not dead cause they don't smell as bad!" _Duck looked back to the walker he killed a few minutes prior as an idea formed.

"_Steel yourself. This is for mom and Clementine." _He assured himself as he used his bladed arm and sawed the thing's stomach open. He wretched as he used his proper hand to scoop it's guts and gunk out.

It was when he smeared some of it on his shirt that he finally threw up.

The bile rose and fired out of his gullet, the acid burning his throat. The smell was SO horrid. He could sit there and be sick all day, if he had the chance. But he had a mission. It was time that, in his words, secret agent Duck made his move.

He had his bladed arm out, but kept his gun tucked away. He knew he'll need it.

He walked out the alley way, flies following him as he did so. Duck looked at the way most walked and decided to limp as well, to look more convincing. He wandered straight into the mass of walkers...

...and they ignored him.

"_It's working! Keep calm, ignore them. Only kill when necessary." _A women walker had stood in front of him and hissed in his face. Duck kept calm and prepared his blade before it moved along.

"_Was it...trying to talk to me?" _He thought, looking for the said walker, but it had left. He continued his awkward stepping, bumping into an overweight walker who had hissed at him, before moving along.

"_MADE IT!" _He cheered, quickly entering the building. He then took to walking normally, pulling his gun out.

He spotted a blood trail and felt his blood run cold. _"Is that Clementine's blood?" _He couldn't help but ask, before shaking his head and walking up the stairs.

He decided to follow the blood, since it was fresh. Luckily there wasn't a lot of it, not enough for someone to die.

Finally he came to a door. Where a little blood was smeared on the door handle. Duck entered the room, pointing his gun in all directions around the room. Noting it was clear, he tucked his gun back in his trousers, noticing the bed sheets that tied a wardrobe with a bedroom.

There was crying coming from the wardrobe. A familiar crying.

Clementine.

"Cl-"

"SHH!" A voice sounded from behind him. He turned to see the man from before, pointing a gun at him. He then motioned to the dresser in the corner. "Put your stuff there." Duck, sane enough to know that resisting would be pointless, walked over slowly and untaped his blade, putting it down.

"That's all I have..." Duck said, having hidden Katjaa's gun in his trousers, at his hip covered by his shirt as well.

"You travel light...I don't believe you." He said, putting the barrel on the back of his head. "You think I'm stupid kid. I see it. In your right pocket." Duck let a sigh of relief in his head, having remembered getting something.

* * *

_Flashback_

_Duck had entered a jewellery store, trying to avoid a heard of about twenty walkers. He then quickly shot the dead security guard that was there, before he could reveal his position._

_While Duck was waiting, his eyes were drawn to an electric calendar that still had batteries left. It stated that the date was October 2nd. Clementine's birthday was tomorrow. _

_Duck, deciding to take the initiative, looked over the jewellery. It would be something to make her birthday enjoyable at least. _

_Then he found something. A simple locket. He smiled to himself. He wasn't sure whether Clementine was a jewellery kind of girl but it looked nice enough and wasn't as...bling...as the other stuff here._

_So he opened the cabinet, relieved that the alarm system wasn't powered, and took it putting it into his pocket._

* * *

He let a smile grace his lips at the distraction the locket caused and fetched it out, putting it on the dresser.

* * *

The others were on the roof, opposite to the hotel, trying to find their way across that didn't involve walking through the walkers. That was when Lee saw them.

"Guys! He's got Duck!" The others looked to where he was pointing to see the man pointing a gun at Duck laying down a walkie talkie.

"_I know you're listening Lee. Sending another child here. Despicable."_

"_He didn't send me here. I came on my terms." _They heard Duck, venomously say to the stranger. They looked through the window to see Duck glare, defiantly at the man opposite. Kenny felt a bit of pride bubble up. His son survived all those walkers and was standing up to this man all by himself.

"We don' have a long ranged weapon." Daryl cursed, looking at everyone's weapons. All pistols and his crossbow. "Tha' window's closed. The crossbow can' break though it."

"We have to find a way over!" Kenny cried out, panicking for his son.

"_You move from that spot, your son dies..." _The man said, waving to them from his seat. _"You may as well let him live long enough to hear my story."_

* * *

Back in the hotel, Duck had glanced and locked eyes with his father who was trying his best not to cry. Duck felt his resolve thicken. How dare this man threaten his dad like this!

"What gives you the right to rip our family apart?" He seethed to the man opposite who, in response, smacked Duck in the face with the weapon.

"_DUCK!" _His dad called through the radio. The man opposite glared at the boy, who looked back up spitting a bit of blood out of his mouth.

"Now I hope you'll take my threats seriously..." Then glared back. "I'm only here to help Clementine. Not you, you brat."

"Yeah, sure, right. Your going to take such good care of a kid after you kill one." He spat out to the man in hatred. The man opposite sighed.

"Let's just try to keep this civil. Do you know who I am?"

"The bastard that killed my mom." He replied, not really wanting to be civil at all.

"Let's just say you don't." The man replied, losing a lot of patience with the kid.

"Duck! Is that you?!" Duck was about to respond, before the man rose his gun and put his finger to his lips.

"Don't worry sweetie, everything will be fine." That's when Duck saw a scabbing blood smear running from his right nostril to his lip.

"Looks like Clementine knocked you one good." Duck smirked. At least he knew that Clementine was safe. The man put the barrel to his head, the pair glaring at each other.

"You have a gun pointed at your head! You should be fearing for your life right now!" Duck actually started to laugh at the man.

"Please. I had a cannibal kidnap me and shoot my dad! I had to walk through a mass of walkers! I was alone when we split up with about eight walkers following me! I had my ARM cut off! I've had my share of scares and believe me, YOU AREN'T ONE OF THEM!" He snarled to the man. The man, roughly, pushed him down in his chair, keeping the gun pointed at him and sitting back down.

* * *

"Yikes." Carl let out from beside Sophia, their gazes fixed on the scene in front of them. "Duck's had a hell of a few weeks."

"Days more like." Carly joined in from beside them. "That all happened in five days. I was amazed he was still his happy-go-lucky self after the dairy incident. Now I think he's become a tough son-of -a-bitch."

"Yeah...But Clementine..." Lee said, not looking away from the pair. "Is in there with him and Duck. I don't know what's going to unfold."

"But we got to be ready to give that guy the chase when he makes his runner." Shane had whispered to the others, nodding to the fire exit. "Me, Rick, Lee, Kenny and Daryl will move in and you guys go down after and cover the rest of the exits."

* * *

"Now..." The man stated, trying to calm down once again. "I guess you can call me Campman."

"Real name?" Duck asked, obviously not believing the man.

"Not really necessary." He replied to the question. "But I think you'll remember a station wagon. It had a lot of food, water, batteries a lot of stuff. You see, that stuff belonged to me."

"You shouldn't have left it unattended." Duck replied, without missing a beat. "It was out there, ready for the taking. At least leave a sign saying do not take."

"Like you'd pay attention to that. I'd just like to ask why your group took it." He nodded back to the wardrobe. "Clementine's welcome to it, but she's wearing my daughter's jumper."

"It was in the middle of the forest. Abandoned. Even if we didn't take it, the bandits would have." Duck glared at him further. "We left a little as per Lee and Clementine's request. So why are you so hell bent on taking revenge on him?"

"He's not been taking care of her! He brought her to a place filled with cannibals!" Duck clenched the arms of the armchair in fustration.

"There was no way we would have known they were trying to EAT us! We thought that was reserved for walkers!" Campman continued anyway.

"You brought her into the middle of this city!"

"If you were listening before you sounded the dinner bell, you'd have known that we were going to take her back to the train!"

"With you! Two other kids! And three moms!" He snarled. "Like you'd have taken care of her!"

Duck held out his stump, laying his hand over his concealed gun. "I sacrificed my hand to protect her! You have NO right saying we'd let ANYTHING hurt her!"

"You, personally, weren't exactly good to her!" Duck glared at him as he continued. "I heard how she used to talk about you being mean to her! Babbling on about something she didn't care about! Talking about a cartoon while she was crying over her walkie talkie! I bet you don't know anything about her!"

"I know enough to know that she doesn't want to be with you!" He could hear Clementine crying even more and his rage just increased.

"My family was killed because of your group! Your dad who stole our supplies! Tess and Elizabeth were bitten! Adam lost when hunting! It's all your fault!"

"Your a grieving man who can't take responsibility for his actions and is looking to pin it on someone else!"

"Like YOU haven't! What about Shawn?!" Duck's eyes softened as he thought about Shawn. The nice guy who let him play on the tractor. But then, Shawn got killed.

"I know that's my fault...I know I didn't say anything...But I didn't look to blame anyone else... Hershel blamed my dad when he should have blamed me! I'm not YOU!" Campman, deciding he has had enough, pulled the trigger...

But he was pushed aside, so the bullet missed.

Clementine stood there, panting a little. Duck pulled out his concealed weapon and stamped on the hand Campman had his gun in. "Yeah, rule one of the apocalypse. Double. Check. Everything." With that, Duck shot the man in the head.

* * *

The group on the roof sighed in relief. "Thank you God!" Kenny said, clamping his hands together. "Thank you SO much!"

Lee smiled at the little girl in the room with Duck. "Way to go Clementine."

"C'mon, let's go get them." Shane had said, about to leave before Rick stopped him.

"Hold on. We can still call them. Maybe they can make their way over here. Duck managed to walk through that." Rick said, indicating to the large amount of walkers littering the streets. "But maybe we can thin them out."

"Agreed." Lily said, looking to the building next to the one there on, looking at the alarm system. "Rally? Think you can get that working?"

"Are walkers ugly?" He replied, smirking, heading up there. "It'll be ready to go ASAP."

* * *

Clementine, knowing that the stranger isn't going to turn, turned to Duck who had ripped his gunk covered shirt off. "OH GOD! That thing STUNK!" He vented, holding his nose.

Suddenly, Clementine hugged him, crying into his neck. Him, not really used to getting hugged, just hugged back awkwardly. "Th-thank y-you... I...I-I'm sorry a-about wha..."

"Shh..." Duck replied, rubbing her back soothingly. "It's okay. Your okay. Let's just get to the others."

"_Hey love-birds!" _The pair jumped away from each other in embarrassment, hearing Carl's voice over the walkie talkie. _"You guys need to get ready. There's a fire escape ladder on the right side of our building, in the alley way. Rally's going to cause a distraction and you guys run over here." _

Duck gave a thumbs up out the window, strapping his knife back on and, discretely, put the locket back in his pocket. Clementine voiced her understanding through the walkie talkie, deciding to take it with her.

Duck quickly, but reluctantly, put his gunky shirt back on. "You ready Clem?" She nodded, clutching the bat she was taken with, walkie in her hoodie pocket.

"Ready." Duck nodded opening the door.

Standing in the doorway, a walker stood hissing. Clementine gasped as Duck stared at it and it stared back.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then Duck threw his blade into it's chin and it fell limp. "It didn't attack you." Clementine mentioned, noting it's unusual behaviour. "Why?"

"Because I stink." He replied, smiling. "I kind of got here by smearing walker guts over myself before leaving." Clementine stood there for a second, imagining that, before running to the window.

* * *

Everyone on the opposite building was wondering what the problem was before Clementine threw up. "Eww." Sophia whined, watching the stomach contents hit an elderly walker in the head. Daryl laughed.

"Ha ha! Nice sho'!" He then smirked at Carl, pointing to a walker crawling on the ground. "Bet you three bullets I can spi' on tha' one!" He smirked back.

"No way! You're on!"

"No you're not!" Carol intervened. "Don't spit on them!" Daryl rolled his eyes.

"Oh sure, we can smash their brains in and shoo' 'em in the face. But spitting is just pure evil."

* * *

"You done?" Duck asked, motioning to the door. "We need to go." Clementine nodded, following Duck out the door.

Soon they found themselves in the lobby with the walkers wandering the streets. That's when Clementine saw them limp in the lobby...

...her parents.

The two walkers wandered in, having just randomly wanted to enter. The women had a distinctive athro and the man was slightly over weight. Clementine cried out when she saw them, attracting the pair that way.

Duck saw them and made the connection, quickly putting his mom's gun in her hands. She looked up at him, tears starting to poor down her face. "I'm sorry Clem...But it's better this way..."

"I-I don't want...I-I'm scared..." Duck nodded, wiping her tears away much like he did just last night.

"I know. I was scared when I had to finish mom off. And when I took the bite for you. But, like me, you have to do this. You can't be afraid." Clementine nodded, looking to the weapon in confusion. "Just point it and pulled the trigger. Try to keep the bars on the top level and don't extend your arms all the way. There's only two bullets left, so try to get to good hits. Or it's going to have to be the messy way." He explained, glancing at her bat.

She nodded and stood in front of her parents. The two saw her and hissed, limping towards her in hunger before Clementine rose the gun.

The silenced weapon let off the first round into her father's head, wedging into his brain, finally letting him rest. Just as quickly, Clementine turned it to her mom and repeated the process.

Her parents fell down, put down for good as Clementine grieved. She knelt down next to her kin, sobbing lightly. She knew her parents were dead when Lee told her, but now she doesn't have the comfort of Lee's possible error.

Duck put a hand on her shoulder, looking at her with sympathy. "Don't worry Clem. They resting in peace now." She nodded, mutely, getting up. Duck looked out, seeing the walkers wander over to the building next to the one the rest of the group were. "We need to go..."

Clementine kissed his cheek, causing him to stop in stunned silence. "Thank you for everything Duck." She said, interlocking her fingers with his, holding his hand. "Let's go." Duck grinned, the two leaving the building. To her new life. Her new family. Lee, Carly, Lily, Rick, Shane...and Duck.

Well, Duck was a complicated one. She didn't really see him as family. But way more than that. She just needed to work out what. _"Oh well." _She thought to herself as Duck let her get onto the ladder first, him being the one armed guy will have a bit of trouble.

"_I have plenty of time to work it out..." _

* * *

ML54: I think it'd be justified to spit on a walker. I can't see the problem. Just a bit of fun._  
_

Carol: It's unhygenic!

Daryl: They rip out your stomachs and eat them raw. You think that's hygenic?

Carol:...point taken.

Sophia: ML54 would like reviews, but please don't flame him.


	10. Chapter 10

ML54: Well, I decided to pop a chapter in, without any real jeprody or anything. It's not all about horror.

Carl: *Rolls eyes* It is mostly though.

Shane: Gotta back the kid up there.

ML54: Just be glad I haven't killed anyone off in this one. I don't own the walking dead.

**Coffee Break**

"Alright." Rick said, laying out a map across the table in the kitchen of an old mansion they found to be abandoned in Savana. He then pointed to an area on the map. "If we're lucky, then the track should take us to Pennsylvania. Where there'll be food and water...I hope."

"Yeah." Shane said, glancing out the window. "Cause this was a waste of time and a fucking death trap. Hopefully we won't run into anyone suspicious in Pennsylvania."

"I heard that area got evacuated." Doc mentioned, pointing to other areas. "People were told to get to Atlanta, Seattle, Washington DC, New York or just to leave the country. But there'll be the problem of looting."

Suddenly, they heard a rustling and looked out into the hallway, only to find Carl peeking out the wooden boards. "Carl? What are you doing?" He glanced back, before sighing.

"Daryl took some of our group to check one of the stores that he, Carol and Sophia found. He said it looked promising. I'm just here, ready to let them in." Rick let out an aggravated sigh, rubbing his temples.

"We aren't supposed to be staying long. Who went?" Carl let out a depressed sigh, looking to the grandfather clock in the hallway.

"He went with Sophia, Duck, Kenny, Lori, Carol, Rally and Lily." He glanced back and frowned. "I don't know how long they've been gone. Daryl said he told you."

"Well he didn't!" Rick said, frustrated with his group's carelessness. Sure he knew that Daryl could take care of himself, but he's only got two others in that group that can shoot. Duck doesn't have a gun anymore. But even then, Lily's a bit of a wild nut shooter and Kenny's depressed. "Do you know where abouts they went?"

"Not really. Maybe Lee knows? Hey Lee!" Lee came in with Clementine by his side, looking confused.

"What's wrong?" Carl nodded to Rick. Lee turned to Rick in question.

"Do you know where the others went?" Lee nodded.

"Yeah. Down the street, to the right. A left down Kennedy Street and straight on. Why? Daryl said he told you." Rick grabbed his gun, throwing Lee his.

"Doesn't matter, we had to leave anyway. Let's go get the idiots."

* * *

"Daryl..." Lori sighed out, frustrated. "This is a book shop!"

Daryl shrugged, kicking the door down. "It's the only store tha' wasn' looted."

"Yeah." Lily started, entering behind him. "Mainly because I don't think people would want to catch up on their reading during the apocalypse."

"Hey, book shops have little cafés." Carol interrupted, defending Daryl. "It could, at the very least, have some coffee." Kenny shrugged walking into the store. Not really having it in him to argue with stupid decisions anymore.

"Forget it. May as well take a look around. I could use a good book to read." He said, wandering in. Duck and Sophia, almost immediately, went after him to find something to read. Duck was heading to the comic book section though.

"I'll see if I can strip some parts from around here." Rally said, wandering to the back keeping his weapon close. "Could come in useful."

* * *

"Guys!" Rick announced after they were there about twenty minutes, causing everyone to jump and turn, weapons drawn. Lori sighed, putting the hatchet down.

"Jesus! Rick!" She yelled out, trying to get her breathing under control. "You gave us a heart attack!"

"He did the right thing mom." Carl defended, walking in to find Sophia and Duck. "You should be scared when you hear nothing." Clementine followed after Carl, Lee shrugging and following as well. He saw Kenny near the other two kids and wanted to talk to him.

"Daryl! Why'd you tell the others you told me where you were going?!" Rick demanded, the others all getting into the shop, T-Dog closing the door behind them.

"You'd a said comin' 'ere would be stoopid." He replied, hopping over the counter towards the kitchen area. Shane looked around and whistled.

"Well he would have had a point. This place has books, true, but what does it have in terms of food?" Daryl carried a box into the area, grunting when he put it down.

"This." He replied, pulling the box open. In it, where a lot of...

...well cakes.

"Um..." Daryl stared at his find and facepalmed. "Great! We're going to give the kids the sugar rush to end all sugar rushes."

"Are they even okay to eat? They've been in there a while, obviously?" Carol asked, afraid of anyone getting food poisoning. Doc shrugged, picking one up. He looked to the back of them.

"They're flapjacks, apparently. They don't spoil until 6th January 2013...What's the date?" Everyone stood, staring blankly at each other. "Please don't tell me none of us knows the date!"

"Okay..." Charlotte replied. "We won't tell you."

"Now's not the time for stupid jokes." Glen responded, picking up a couple of packets of coffee from behind the counter and stuffing them in his bag. "Let's just get what we can and get out of here!"

* * *

"Mom?" Sophia called, walking up to her with a book in her hands, a mild blush on her face. Carol looked back at her in confusion.

"What's wrong Sophia?" She asked, worried about her reddening face as she handed the book over.

"What are the people in the book doing? Is it normal?" Carol, confused, read the title of the book that Sophia had been reading and dropped in shock...

...Fifty Shades Of Grey.

"Where did you find THIS?" She demanded to know. Sophia pointed, feebly, to the book stand next to Kenny and Lee. Carol sighed, ready to give them hell when they got back on the train. How had no-one noticed what she was reading?!

"Mommy?" She turned to her innocent daughter's face looking back at her like a little puppy. "What were they doing?"

"U-um...I'll tell you another t-time sweetie." Carol said shakily, packing the book away in her bag, making sure there were no other copies scattered around. Sophia sighed, heading back to the other kids.

"No way! Spiderman would kick Superman's butt!" Carl argued, looking at Duck in defiance, holding a Spiderman comic while Duck had a Superman one. Obviously Duck had to be careful with his left, bladed arm, lest he accidentally hit him in the arm, playfully. That would be one playful thing that would go HORRIBLY wrong.

Clementine rolled her eyes as Sophia sat by her, going back to the colouring book. "Boys..." She smirked, picking up a green pencil.

Sophia shrugged. "Well. Can't live with out them." Clementine rose an eyebrow at Sophia's choice of words.

"Why?" Sophia shook her head of the text she had seen in the book earlier. Sometimes she cursed herself for being able to read at such a high level. Though she couldn't do math or science to save her life.

"Erm...n-nothing. Just forget I said anything." The younger girl looked at her a bit longer, before shrugging and returned to colouring. Sophia sighed in relief and picked up a magazine from the rack next to her.

"What about the Hulk then? No way could Iron Man beat him!" She smiled to herself, still hearing her friends argue over which super hero was the best.

* * *

"It's amazing that there aren't any walkers here." T-Dog mentioned, walking in to see Rally unscrew a few nails and pipes from the wall.

"I know. If it weren't smack bang in the middle of a walker infested city, I would have suggested staying here a while."

"Oh well. You almost done, we need to get back to the train before it gets dark." Rally shrugged, putting the removed materials into a backpack he had taken.

"Sure, let's go."

* * *

"Carly?" Carly, surprised someone was talking to her, turned to see Duck standing there.

"Oh Duck. What do you need?" She asked, noting that the rest of the kids were still with Lee and Kenny. Duck got out the locket he got earlier.

"Um...It's Clem's birthday tomorrow, so I was hoping you'd be able to help me wrap this." He nodded to his stump. "I'd do it myself, but even with both my hands I was never any good at wrapping presents."

"Sure, there's some wrapping paper he...Wait! You know what the date is?" She asked, suddenly realising what he said. Knowing someone's birthday was coming up meant knowing the date.

"Yeah. When I was chasing the ninja bastard, I had to go into a jewellery store to hide from some walkers. There I saw an electric clock, calendar that was still working. It's October 2nd." She smiled to herself. Duck's proven to be very useful here. He saved Clementine twice and found the date.

"Well let's get that wrapped up." She picking up the roll of wrapping paper and walking into the kitchen with him.

* * *

"I think I won that one." Carl cheered, sitting next to the girls reading a Batman comic. "Batman's WAY better than Thor."

"Isn't Thor that half god guy?" Clementine asked, having had Duck mention him more than once before. "What's Batman's power?"

"He doesn't have one. He has a bunch of gadgets and stuff." Sophia rolled her eyes.

"Great. I lost Clem to the nerd side." She smirked. Clementine hit her arm, playfully.

"So what're you girls up to?" Carl asked, curiously. He was in his debates with Duck, him having lost most of them. Clementine shrugged, picking up a red pencil.

"Colouring a beach ball." The older girl sighed, leaning back into the bookshelf behind her.

"How I wish we could go to the beach." She said, slapping the magazine shut. She had noticed Clem wasn't paying attention at that point. She had been glaring at something.

Sophia followed her line of sight and saw Duck and Carly go into the kitchen. "What're they doing?" The younger girl asked, accidentally scribbling on the floor in red pencil.

"Looking for food?" Carl guessed, not seeing what the big deal was. Until he saw her angry look and grinned. "Why? Are you jealous?"

Clementine snapped out of it, blushing as she returned to the colouring book. "What?! I don't know what you're talking about?! Beside, Carly is WAY too OLD for him."

"Don't let her hear you saying that." Lily mentioned, causing the three to look up at her. "She'll have your hair out. Believe me, I know."

* * *

Duck sat on the counter, cutting paper when Carly needed it to be done. He smiled to himself, happy to know he might be able to have Clementine forget about everything that happened today.

He glanced to his left and saw a door. It had the words 'store room' on the top and he got curious. Carly had turned to him with the present wrapped, only to find him in front of the door. "A store room?" Duck nodded back.

"Yeah. I think we should get the others and explore." Duck then thought about it and sighed. "Actually I've had enough fun today, I'll send Lee, dad and Lily in. Maybe Daryl and Shane too."

Duck turned and left, feeling his stump. Yeah, he's had a wild few days. He had enough sense to pick up the wrapped present before leaving though.

* * *

Sophia sighed in relief when Duck and Carl went back to discussing super heroes and looked back at the teen magazine she was reading. Hey, she wanted to do something normal for her age.

Right now she was contemplating whether she should ask Clementine for one of her pencils. Why? A compatibility test.

"_It's just a stupid test. Nothing will come of it!" _She protested in her head but, despite better judgement, she got the pencil and began to fill it out.

"_Alright, question one. What's his and your's favourite colour? The fuck? What the fuck does THAT have to do with anything?!" _Despite her mom's dislike of such language, Sophia thinks it doesn't really make much of a difference. Not in the apocalypse. Anyway, the others used the word quite alot, she didn't see the problem.

Despite the stupid question, she's sort of relieved to think Carl's favourite colour is blue, like her's. "_Question two. What are his and your's favourite activities?" _She had to resist the urge to put down 'surviving' or 'walker killing'. She likes to read and, well, reading comic books counts, doesn't it?

"_Oh GOD! Why am I justifying my answers to a piece of paper?! Heck WHY am I even bothering?!" _She threw the magazine aside and grabbed another book. She shrugged, reading said book entitled 'The supernatural series: Zombies'. Could have something useful to their situation in it.

"_Once bit, you're dead. There's nothing you can do about it." _She had to suppress a laugh, glancing at Duck. HE very much survived betting bit. _"You can only come back as one when bit." _Then how did this start? Surely someone can't be bit if they're the first walker.

Walker. Sophia put on a puzzled expression. _"Why are we calling them walkers? Surely we should be saying zombies." _

Unbeknownst to her, the teen magazine had been picked up by Daryl when she threw it.

He was going to just throw it away, but he saw the little girl look angry with herself about something in it and felt he should take a look. He doesn't know why, it wasn't as if he were her dad! But still, he flicked it open to the page with the folded corner of paper.

When he saw what it was, he smirked. _"Oh ya shoulda thrown it away. A' tha very leas', don' write your's and Carl's name a' tha top." _He rolled it up and tucked it into his pack. Could become good blackmail. Could be good for getting them together. God knew they needed to.

* * *

"How you holding up?" Lee had asked his best friend. Kenny looked back blankly, before sighing out.

"I don't know, Lee...I just don't know..." The fisherman responded, looking over to Duck. "He's grown up now...He killed a man Lee...I don't think he needs his old daddy telling him what to do..."

"You know that's bullshit." The teacher replied, glaring at the man. "Duck may not show it, but having his mother dead will be tearing him up inside. He needs you Kenny, now more than ever!" Kenny was about to argue, but his words failed him.

"You know I'm right Kenny. Just don't do anything too rash. I can find you something to take your mind off things." Kenny sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I'm fine Lee...I just need time is all...But could...Could you look after Duck for a couple of days. I need to think things over." Lee nodded as the two got off the hand rails to check on the store room, Duck had said was at the back.

"You stay here and think. Carol and Lori are watching the kids." Kenny didn't say anything in reply, but the tear glistening on his cheek was a give away of how he's feeling now. Lee sighed, guilty for leaving him on his own, and went to find the others.

* * *

"So Duck and you just found this place?" Lily asked, looking to the door. It wasn't sealed shut or anything. In fact, if it weren't for the door handle, it'd very much be wide open.

"Yeah...but we don't know what's in there. He wanted to get you guys to check it out with me." Carly responded. Shane nodded, bringing out the pistol from his pocket.

"Kid's probably had enough adventuring to last a while." Lee took to standing beside him, sighing.

"I hope so...I don't think Kenny can handle anything else happening to his family. We ready." The girls nodded, having their guns out too. "Let's go!"

With that, the four burst into the store room. But then slowly lowering their weapons at what was in there...

...food.

* * *

ML54: I suppose they needed to catch a break.

Rally: I really hope that pun wasn't intended.

ML54: I don't even know anymore. O well, please review. Don't flame and stay frosty.


	11. Chapter 11

ML54: Hey uys, I know it's been a month, but here's a new chapter. Hope you like it.

Lee: Anyone dying?

ML54: Wait and see. Evil hat! Disclaimer!

Evil hat: ML54 doesn't own The Walking Dead.

**Morales**

Everyone was in high spirits when they got back on the train that evening after they found the food in the book shop. Especially Daryl who still hadn't removed the 'I told you so' look he held when he passed the people who thought the trip was a waste of time.

Mostly Lori though.

"Alright! Alright! It wasn't an inconvenience! You know best! Are you happy now?!" Daryl shrugged in response to Lori's question, turning to move a box of tinned meats onto the train.

"I don' know. I still feel pretty good abou' myself." Lori huffed and sat in the train car with Carl who was playing go fish with Duck...well trying to teach Duck HOW to play go fish. "I'll never ge' tired of seeing tha' look on her face." Carol rolled her eyes, passing the hill billy another box filled with soups.

"Can't you try to be nicer to her?" Daryl grunted, taking the box from the women with ease and setting it on the train.

"If she's nicer to me, I'd be nicer back. It's a give an' receive kin' of deal wit' me." Carol took a deep breath and heaved another box that was set down by Rick at her feet. The group had decided to take it in turns to carry the supplies from the book shop to the train, with four guys at the front for protection.

Now that they were at the train, the journey was almost done. "You two are never going to get along, are you?" She asked as she off handed the next box to Daryl.

"Have pigs started flyin'?"

* * *

"Hey Rick!" The sheriff turned to the deputy, Shane, in curiosity as they made their way to the drivers car.

"What's happening Shane?" Shane nodded towards the city they were in.

"Well, we knew what we had to do with that psycho earlier. But what's the etiquette for other survivors? Do we treat them as hostiles, or friendlies?" Rick blinked, then put a hand to his chin in contemplation.

"...Suspicious." Rick decided, facing Shane. "We've got our group to think about and that's our priority. We see any survivors, we'll make sure we can trust them first."

"How do we do that?" Rick sighed, putting a hand to his forehead.

"I don't know...Why don't you decide?" Shane blinked in surprise. "I'm stumped. I could use some input."

"...well. If they got kids, I think they'd be trust worthy right off the bat. They wouldn't risk a safe place for a kid." Rick nodded, looking back to see Lee and Kenny with Clementine and Duck respectively. Ain't no way either of them would risk something funny with those kids to think about.

"Agreed. Good thinking. Anything else?"

"We'll think on it." Shane concluded, rubbing his head. "After all, like you said, we got to look after our guys." Shane then turned. "I'll head back to the others. Make sure to tell me if you come up with some answers."

"Always." Rick smiled to his best friend, him smiling back. It was good that his best friend was acting normal again.

* * *

Shane sat down, taking out his weapon and a small piece of cloth. Apparently about to clean his weapon. He made sure he was well away from the kids first, as Lori and Carol would throw a hissy fit if Carl or Sophia got too close. Course it'd be harmless.

He soon felt someone else's presence and turned to find Lily next to him. He rose an eyebrow at the women. "Don't mind me. Just wanted to know what you were doing."

"Cleaning my gun." Shane shrugged, stuffing the cloth down the barrel. "Keeps it firering and firering good." Lily, in curiosity, pulled her own weapon out.

"Sounds like a plan. Have any spare cloths?" Shane took out another from his pocket and handed to her. "Thanks...I don't think I've properly introduced myself." Lily said, smiling a little. "My name's Lily."

"Shane." Shane smiled back, moving onto to clean the outside the barrel. "So how'd you become part of Lee's group?"

"Believe it or not, I use to be the leader of the group. Back when we were taking cover in the drugs store in Macon. Then Lee, Kenny, Katjaa, Duck and Clementine wandered into the middle of town looking for gas, so Glen and Carly had to save their asses...I guess I lost command then."

"Shit...I used to be in charge of my group too." Shane replied, his situation sort of similar to her's. "I was until Glen came back with Andrea, T-Dog, Morales and Rick. Then Rick took charge. The thing is, I thought the guy died. He was in a fucking coma."

"Wow. Guess if you survive a coma in this world, you'd sort of be ideal as a leader." Shane shrugged, starting to clean the interior of the gun.

"I guess...and I can't say he's been a bad leader. This world has got me a little crazier recently. That was mostly due to hunger." Lily smiled back, copying Shane with her weapon.

"I know what you mean. I had to be the one to ration food..." She sighed, looking away for a bit. "...everyone started to hate me. My dad and Lee were the only one's who really understood. Me and Kenny aren't exactly on best terms."

"I heard something about Lee letting a couple of deaths go...was this Larry guy your dad?" Lily put her gun back together and tried really hard not to let a tear fall.

"Yeah...We were on this dairy farm with these cannibals who called themselves the St. John family. They locked me, Lee, Kenny, Clementine and my dad in a meat locker and my dad had a heart attack..." Lily shook a bit before Shane placed a hand on her shoulder. He doesn't know why, but he feels like he can relate to this women more than anyone else.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to..." Lily shook her head, putting her gun away.

"I started. May as well finish. We had just learned that it's not the bite that turns you...so Kenny and Lee were worried that my dad was going to turn." Shane nodded, he was afraid this was the case when he saw the baby in the car not so long ago. "So...Lee held me back while...while Kenny grabbed a salt lick...they threw it on his head..." Lily didn't realise she let a tear slip until it was wiped away by Shane.

"I know that musta been hard on you."

"I got over it...It's easy to forgive Lee. He was looking out for Clementine. But I wasn't so sure on Kenny. I know he has Duck...But it's just that...I can't help but..."

"But to feel as if he wanted to do it? To get back at you?" Shane guessed. He had needed to make tough choices before, like to leave Rick at the hospital. She nodded, covering her face.

"I know it's stupid. But I...I-I..."

"I think Kenny was thinking about everyone in that locker. You, Lee AND Clementine. In a way, he's right, if your dad turned, were there any weapons handy to kill him in there?" Lily ran a hand through her hair and sighed.

"Your right..." She stood. "Thanks." She smiled to him. Her first real smile in a while. "For being honest and listening rather than cramming your opinions down my throat like a certain teenager used to." Shane chuckled at the thought of timid little Ben trying to tell Lily what to do, then nodded to Lily.

"You're welcome. Think we can talk more later?" Shane did a double take. He never really talked to people unless necessary or was Lori. But he seemed drawn to Lily.

"Sure."

* * *

"You sure we'll be safe in California?" Charlotte asked Doc, who shrugged in response.

"Who really knows? We only got that one guy's word. But it seems like he knows Rick's group." Doc ran a hand through his hair. "Thought much on Denise?"

"Of course." She replied, looking to Doc. "He was a good friend. I just...can't believe he died. The guy survived being alone."

"I know...but he always said when he goes, he wanted to go with a bang. I think he did just that." He smirked, remembering seeing the tower of smoke from the train car when he had removed Duck's arm.

"Yeah..." Charlotte giggled. "He sure did make good on his word...do you think we're taking his death a little too lightly?" Doc put a hand to his chin in contemplation before sighing.

"I guess...I know me and him had our disagreements, but he still saved my life. That walker would have had my neck if it weren't for him." He then looked to Duck who was happily listening to his dad talk to him. "I'm just glad I was able to save that kid. I'm glad I proved Denise wrong."

Charlotte rested her hand on his, smiling up at the older man. "Me too, Doc. Me too."

* * *

T-Dog looked to the calendar in his hands and sighed sadly. Andrea's calender. _"If I had been just a little faster! I could've saved them! I let Merle down! Now I've let them down!" _

Contrary to some of the other's beliefs, T-Dog had felt terrible for leaving Merle handcuffed to the roof and is preparing himself for a well deserved ass kicking when he got to California. He just hoped to God there was going to be a hospital there.

Glen sat next to the African-American man, smiling to him. "How're you doing T?"

"I'm...okay I guess..." The Asian man rose his eyebrow at the man next to him.

"That's definitely the sign of guilt. What's eating you?" T-Dog smiled at the kid, looking over at Daryl.

"I just feel guilty that I left Merle behind. I also saw what happened to Andrea and Dale and I can't help but feel like..."

"You can't beat yourself up over these things." Glen interrupted, taking off his cap to scratch at his head. He's probably got knits. Then again, they all probably do. They haven't been able to have a proper wash since the CDC. "What's done is done. You can't go back and change it. If you could, I think I'd stock up on supplies before all this started."

"Ha ha. Yeah! Maybe get a whole years worth of baked beans!" T-Dog laughed, glad that his mind had been put at ease. "But isn't it bothering you that a lot of us are pairing off."

"Not really. No-one here I'm really that into." He shrugged. "But I see what you mean. Still, that's a good thing. End of the world means it'll need repopulating. Plus if this California place is legitimate, then there's bound to be girls there. Just looking for walker hardened men like us." Glen grinned to his friend who laughed with him.

* * *

Rally was just in the drivers seat, preparing it for when everyone's finished packing the train. He was looking over all the lights and levers on the dashboard, making sure it was al in working order when he spotted movement up ahead. Curiously, he peered up ahead and saw a couple of people running from something.

That's when Rick had entered with Carl. "What's wrong, Rally?"

"HELP US!" Rick and Carl immediately ran up to the front of the train when they heard that familiar voice.

They recognised the two, dark skinned children almost immediately. It was Eliza and Louis Morale! "Louis! Eliza!" Carl yelled out to them, causing them to snap their heads up to the three.

"Carl?!" Louis called back in surprise, before remembering what they running from and grabbed his sister's hand and dragging her forward.

At this point, Shane, Lee and Daryl had started to get worried about the racket and grabbed a gun each, running out to the front of the train as well. That was when Shane and Daryl recognised the kids and ran out to get them into the train car.

That's when they saw what they were running from.

Bandits.

"Looky here boys! A train to take from!" The ring leader of a group of four announced, pointing his weapon out towards the five on the ground. "I knew getting them wasn't a waste of time!"

"The way I see it, there's only five of you!" Shane shot back, cocking his shotgun. "Once we start sounding our weapons, they'll be about twelve of us!"

"Yeah, so you better jus' walk away." Daryl added, putting emphasis on the word away. The ring leader snarled, pointing the hand gun he held at Carl.

"I doubt you'll want the poor kid getting hurt." Rick and Shane snarled, Rick getting closer to his son.

"You wouldn't dare!" Lee shouted, getting his own pistol loaded. The ring leader laughed.

"Really. Wat..." Suddenly, a loud shot sounded through the air and blood spurted out the ring leader's head.

"THE FU...!" Unfortunately for the bandits, they were distracted by the shot and didn't notice Daryl, Lee and Shane fire rounds at them until it smashed their brains beyond the repair of the virus.

But that also meant that walkers had heard.

They looked onto the roof and saw Lily staring back. "Don't just stand there! Get the kids on the train!" She shouted at them, popping a shell into a walker's skull as it exited to the forest.

Daryl and Lee scooped up Eliza and Louis, respectively, and ran with Shane in tow to get onto the train car.

Daryl had used his free hand to grab Doc's as Doc helped him up as Carly did the same for Lee.

Shane was about to get on as well, but his ankle was grabbed by a walker. "AH SHIT!" Shane yelled out as he fell down, smacking his head against one of the train's wheels.

Shane groaned, his ears ringing and his vision blurring. He tried to gain focus as the distorted view of the walker that caused this slowly crawled it's way closer to him. He reached for his gun before cursing, it was still in the train.

He then felt steam hit the back of his head. _"Shit! They're leaving!"_

Just as the walker got to his feet, it was shot by Lily, who helped him up. "C'mon! Let's go!" Lily screamed at him, helping him towards the train that was slowly gaining speed.

"SHANE!" Rick cried out, looking to see the pair catching up.

"LILY!" Lee also screamed, holding his hand out to help them.

Rick grabbed onto Shane's hand and Lee grabbed onto Lily's hand. Rick grunted as he pulled the, nearly unconscious, man onto the train. Once he was, he let out a sigh of relief.

Lee, however, was losing his grip. Fear was starting to creep up on him. If he kept a hold of her much long, then he'd fall off as well. He felt his grip slowly slipping. "Don't you fucking let go Lee!" He heard Lily cry out, clasping his hand with her other one, letting the rifle she held fall abandoned behind her.

Lee was almost about to do just that until help came from a very unlikely person at this point in time.

Kenny.

The man had threw out his hand and grabbed onto Lily's sleeve, his other hand onto Lee's shoulder. "No-one deserves to die, even if they are a bitch!" He grunted out pulling with all his might. Lee doing the same.

With their combined strengths, the pair managed to pull Lily in safely, who gasped for breath in fright, having almost died a few seconds ago. Kenny and Lee both threw their heads back and sighed in relief as Duck and Clementine both checked on them, respectively.

Rick sighed in relief, looking over his best friend who had now fallen unconscious. "Doc!" Doc nodded, looking over the man before sighing in relief.

"It's just a bump, not a concussion. He just needs some rest. Course he'll wake up with a bitch of a headache." Rick got up, expressing his gratitude for the doctor, before doing a head count.

Since he knew that Rally was up front, he saw that everyone was present. Including the two new kids who were talking to Carl and Sophia. He was glad they were here, but...

"Eliza, Louis. Where are your parents?" The two looked to Rick, then looked down. Then uttered two words that took a heavy toll on the leader.

"...They're dead."

* * *

ML54: I decided to put Eliza and Louis back in the Walking Dead.

Shane: Why?

ML54: *Shrugs* Hat told me too.

Lee: So now you're getting plot ideas from it?

ML54: In my defence, it's first suggestion was to have Carl join the ODST!

Carl: ODS what?

ML54: Nevermind.

Evil hat: Review, but don't flame. Or I might just have to kill off Lee or Rick.


	12. Chapter 12

ML54: Well, it's coming to the end of the season, but don't worry. I obviously will have a season three too.

Shane: I think the evil hat went a bit too far with this chapter.

ML54: So did I, but I think it'll be a good chapter regardless. Rick!

Rick: ML54 doesn't own the Walking Dead in any format.

**Family**

"...how?" Rick had finally asked the two kids, getting over the shock that two of his friends are now dead.

"We...w-we were driving u-up to Savannah to try a-and find more pe-people..." Louis started, before putting his face in his hands, starting to sob. Eliza put an arm around her brother and continued, the rest of the group giving them their full attention.

"We hit one of the monsters and the car crashed...Me, Louis and Daddy were okay...B-but mommy was dragged out b-by another monster...I-it was too late when daddy woke up..." Kenny let out a sigh. That man had to witness his wife be killed in front of him, just like he had to see his wife's remains himself.

"...When we were running through the woods...these bad people came up and shot daddy in the legs...he told us to run...then they shot him and chased us...that's when we found you..." Eliza was now hugging her brother, tears slipping out of her own eyes. "A monster almost got Louis too...but he managed to slip by..."

"Good." Rick said, putting a hand on each of their shoulders. "Don't worry...we're going to a safe place. California. We've got two more kids you can play with too. Duck and Clementine over there." The two Hispanic children looked up and saw the two with Kenny, Lee and Lily.

"Yeah. Don't worry. We're all here for you." Carl added, supporting his father. Plus, he had taken role of the leader of the kids, it's his job to make sure they're safe.

"I don't feel so good..." Louis said, coughing a little into his hand. Eliza smiled a little to her brother.

"You're just tired...have a nap..."

"Wait. Before you do, may I take a look at you two?" Doc inquired causing the two to look up at him. "I need to make sure you're okay physically."

"You can trust him." Duck mentioned, walking over to ease them of their worry. "He saved my life when I got bit. It's just to make sure you're okay." The two then noticed his bladed arm and went wide eyed.

"W-Where's you're arm?" Louis asked, fearful of what might happen. Doc sighed, deciding to try to put them at ease.

"I had to remove the bite, which was on his arm. That won't happen to you because you didn't get bitten, did you?" The two shook their heads and went to the back with Doc, Charlotte following to help.

"Well, now we go' two orphans wit' us?" Daryl sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Who's gonna look after them?"

"I gu..."

"I will." Shane announced, waking up from his brief coma, causing the others to look up at him in shock. "I know I don't have any kids of my own, but that's also a bonus, I'd have more time to take care of those two and no other kids to over shadow them."

"And dad, he took great care of me when you were in a coma. He'll be good for them." Rick couldn't argue with that logic. Shane had taken care of Carl like he did himself. He knew Shane was capable. But...

"I'll help him." Lily offered, causing the looks to turn to her. "I used to babysit for a few people in my teens and know how to keep them in line and how to care for them." Rick smiled at the two people. He knew he could count on someone to help them.

"Thanks guys. That's great." Just then, Charlotte came back, fear written on her face. This worried Rick greatly. "Charlotte? What's wrong?"

She looked as if she was going to burst into tears in a moments notice. "L-Louis has a n-nasty looking scratch... That walker he slipped buy might not have bitten him..." The group didn't need to hear anything else as Doc came back with the two kids, Eliza clinging to her brother like nothing else matters. That's when they noticed the four, jagged red lines ripped into his torso.

"...It scratched him..."

* * *

It was now later in the evening, around six as the train ran it's course through the tracks. It's been about three hours on the road and Louis looked a lot more pale, but appeared to be asleep. Eliza was hugging him, tears continuing to pour from her eyes.

Shane and Lily had explained to the two that they were going to be their guardians and the two looked a little happier at the time. They saw how much fun Carl and Shane had had, so they were looking forward to spending time with the man.

But Eliza would happily give that and everything here up if Louis were to get better. He had to.

"Eliza..." Carl said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "...I'm so..." She violently pulled away from his hand, clenching her eyes shut.

"Don't say it! He's not dying! He's going to be okay! Duck was, right!" Carl looked at the ground, sighing in pity of the nine year old girl who had lost her parents the same day she was losing her brother.

"Doc had removed the bite...But he can't remove those scratches...They're on his torso..." He tried to comfort her again, but she pulled out of his reach again.

"Just go! Leave me alone!" She screamed, angrily at him. Carl nodded, heading back over to the other three kids who looked at him in pity. It must be hard. He was losing one of the group he was in charge of, that he had claimed responsibility for.

"Sorry Carl..." Sophia said, putting an arm around him in comfort. Carl put his head on her shoulder and sighed. Duck and Clementine putting him on his shoulder as well.

"Were you guys close to them?" Duck had asked, wanting to know a little more about the other kids relationship with Carl and Sophia. Clementine wanted to know two, but was too nervous to ask.

"Me and Louis were good friends...We used to play a few pranks on Eliza and Sophia, but was all in good fun." Sophia smiled, fondly.

"Yeah. But maybe if you guys had spent a little more time with the books, you'd be smarter than us." Carl laughed softly, before coughing out a sob.

"They shouldn't have left our group...They would all be alive if they didn't."

"You don't know that..." Clementine offered, off-handedly. "We don't know what could have happened. Only what did. I always wondered if my parents would be alive if they hadn't gone on that business trip. But then I'd never have met Lee or you guys."

"Yeah Carl." Sophia agreed, squeezing him a bit more against her. "As in the Bible. Everything happens for a reason."

* * *

Louis stirred a bit in Eliza's arms, causing the girl to wake up from nodding off. "Louis..." She heard a small hissing noise as the others were sleeping, only Shane being awake. With no response, she asked again.

"Lou..."

Suddenly, Louis ripped out of her gripped and revealed a pair of milky white eyes and shot his arms out at her, a strong hiss erupting from his wide open jaw. Eliza screamed, holding him back as Shane sprung up to help.

Louis had turned.

Shane grabbed both the walker and Eliza's shoulders, ripping them apart, causing Louis to turn his attention to Shane, pinning him to the floor. Eliza just watching as Shane struggled with her dead brother...

...dead brother.

She fainted at the thought.

Shane grunted, holding the boy's head back as much as her could. This walker sure was strong for a little kid.

The commotion had awoken a bunch of people, cursing themselves for falling asleep at such an early hour of about eight o clock, and ran to get a weapon.

Duck had went straight in to help though, having a weapon handy. "Hold his head back Mr. Shane!" Shane nodded, pushing the kids head up, struggling to keep it up. Duck pulled his arm back.

Just as the blade was about to strike, Louis's head managed to push Shane's arms down and Duck missed. But his blade then threw into the wooden wall next to them and got wedged in there. "Ah shit!"

Shane could feel his arms weakening from holding him away too long. Just as he was about to give in, Lily came up and shot the walker in the head, putting him down for good.

Shane let go, feeling relief on his arms as the dead kid fell on him, limp. The others surrounded him, some like Carl and Sophia breaking down at the sight. Shane picked Louis up and laid him down gently, going to check on Eliza.

Checking her over, he saw that she was fine. Rick came up to Louis and sighed, turning to Rally. "Stop the train...We can't just throw him out. We need to bury him." Rally nodded, head up front while Lee walked up to Rick, holding a shovel. "We bury our own."

"Those fuckers!" Shane shouted loudly, punching the ground in fustration. "Why?! Why the kids?! God why?!" Rick sighed, putting the shovel down next to Shane.

"I'm sorry Shane...But we need to bury him quickly before walkers catch up to the train." He explained as the train halted. Shane picked up the shovel and Louis, then jumped out the train. Lee and Rick following, Lily picked up Eliza and followed. She may be unconscious, but she'd want to be here.

* * *

The whole group was deathly quiet as the train continued on route. They had decided put up some extra grave stones for Morales and his wife next to Louis, since the two of them would want to be near their son in spirit, if not in body.

Suddenly Eliza opened her eyes slowly to see her being cradled by Shane, who smiled sadly to her. "You okay?"

"Of course I'm okay. First time I slept in a while." She smiled back, causing confusion to spread through the group. Shane decided to get straight to the point.

"I meant about you're brother turning and attacking you." She then said something that shocked everyone one.

"I don't have a brother, dad." Eliza had said in confusion. She then glanced at Lily, who was next to Shane at the time. "What's he talking about, mom?"

"E-Eliza...Why don't you go play with the other kids for a while?" She smiled, sweetly at Shane and kissed his cheek.

"Okay dad." She said, walking over to the kids. Rick then approached to them and sighed.

"I didn't think that really happens." He stated to himself, before whispering to the others. "She's been put under SO much stress that she's completely forgotten about her old family and now thinks that you're her biological parents."

"And it might be better for her to keep thinking that." Doc added, causing the others to look to him. "We don't want her to be under stress again. She may just try kill herself." Shane nodded and turned to face the women next to him.

"I think I could do that. What do you think, mom?" Lily shoved him, playfully and smiled fondly.

"I always wanted a daughter. I needed someone to live for. I can do it, dad." Shane smiled and let out a sigh. He had a family now. Sure it was under a very strange circumstance, but it still counted. He could now look at Carl and Lori and not want to take them from Rick, he had Eliza now. Maybe even Lily.

Just what he needed.

* * *

Shane: I have a family now?

ML54: I liked you and tried to bring in a factor that meant you wouldn't go crazy and try to kill Rick. I think this is a good solution.

Lori: I quite like this plot twist, though killing off a child. I thought you were against that.

ML54: I wanted something upsetting and really bad to happen. I thought this would qualify. I didn't enjoy doing it, but I guess I had to kill a kid to show the reality of the world they live in soon anyway.

Eliza: Please review, but don't flame.


	13. Chapter 13

ML54: Right guys, I've kinda had a read through this and I seemed to focus it WAY too much on Duck and Clementine. And I am so sorry about that. I guess I just kinda got hooked on this pairing since I saw it on 6747's fic.

Daryl: I don' think anyone of us cares so lon' as we're no' dead.

Carl: And, well, you did put Duck through a lot of shit...

Clementine: SWEAR!

Carl:...I think it's kinda only fair.

Rick: True. I mean, you can't cut someone's arm off, kill off their mother and just forget about them.

ML54: I guess, but I put it under Calr and Sophia.

Sophia: That's in there too.

Doc: Just forget about. ML54 doesn't own either Walking Deads.

* * *

**Another eve in the Boxcar**

"Hey Lee, you got a minute?" Lee glanced up at Kenny, with Duck at his side. Clementine was playing with Eliza and Sophia right now, so he's got nothin better to do.

"Sure Kenny. What do you need?" Kenny sat next to him while Duck sat in front of the pair.

"It's not what I need, Duck wanted to talk to us." The African-American man rose an eyebrow at the ten year old fiddling with the tape on the knife, tightening it and grunting as little stings accompanied it. "Please don't do that Duck, I don't want you re-opening that wound." Kenny stated to Duck, being a little more than overcautious with him. Duck's the only family that Kenny has left.

"Sorry..." Duck grumbled, letting go of his arm and started to carve into the wood a little with the knife. "...well. I just thought I'd let you know it's Clem's birthday tomorrow."

"Really?" Lee asked in surprise. With everything that had happened between him and the girl he had treated as his own daughter, you'd think he'd ask her when her birthday was. He knew that Duck had found the date, but knowing Clementine's Birthday was useful for Lee as well.

"Yup. She told me yesterday." Lee got up, nodding and smiling to the young boy.

"Thanks Duck. I better try and find something for her." He replied. Then he went to find the leader of the group. Lee had thought that Rick better lead, since he had Clementine to think of...and after what happened in Savannah she needed him now more than ever.

"_She had to witness Katjaa getting murdered...See her own parents as walkers...Kill them..." _Lee knows what it's like to see family like that and knows how it can affect someone. He had see his brother as a walker in Macon.

Now Lee would have left him be if he could. It was his brother! But they needed to get the medicine for Larry and his brother was the only one who could have had the key.

Lee sighed, dragging a hand through his hair. He still didn't know what became of his parents. If they were walkers, just dead or even if they were still barely alive.

He felt a tug on his sleeve and looked down to see Clementine looking at him in concern. "Are you okay, Lee?" The man knelt down to her level, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"I'm fine, Sweat Pea..." Lee responded, using the little nickname he had made for her. She frowned back, poking his cheek.

"Then why are you crying?" She questioned, drawing back her finger, that was now slightly wet from Lee's tears. The Macon born man quickly felt his cheek to see that he was, in fact, crying. He must not have noticed in his reverie.

"Your a little too clever for your own good, you know that?" He grinned at her, causing the eight year old to giggle. "I was just thinking about my family..."

"I think about mine too..." Clementine piped in once he said this, causing him to look at her in sympathy. She smiled sadly to him to try and reassure him. "I like to think their in heaven...Just waiting for us. That they're happy they're gone..."

"That's a good way of thinking." Lee replied, ruffling with her hat a little. She hit his hand away before hugging him. He hugged back, glad to have this girl in his life.

* * *

"It's amazing that we didn't check this other carriage sooner." Rick said to Shane, Daryl and Carly, all holding a gun each. No silencers since, well, they don't really need them. What's the point of using a silenced pistol on a train that walker couldn't get on.

"I know, I think it'll be a good area to have the supplies since it's getting a little cramped in the one we're using now." Carly replied, opening the door to the carriage.

This carriage, however, was completely bare. There wasn't anything in their except the setting sun's dying light. Rick walked to the centre and whistled. "This is a long carriage. Maybe we should have everyone in here."

"Yea', there's enough room in here for all o' us plus a few more." Daryl agreed, heading back to tell everyone. Carly followed after, leaving Rick and Shane alone.

Shane sighed, taking a seat at the open side carriage, looking out at the forest. Rick sat next to him and slipped a coin out of his pocket, sliding it over to Shane. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Shane grinned at his best friend, taking the penny regardless of knowing it's worthlessness. "Just can't believe I have a daughter now..." Rick put a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah and you don't have to change any diapers either, lucky bastard." Shane laughed at that. He knew how bad it had been for Rick when Carl was still pooping his pants. Mentioned it stinking like Hell.

"Awe come on, Rick. You can't tell me that it smells worse than walker guts." Rick shrugged.

"Don't know. I've not kept any of Carl's baby poops to compare." The cops then shared a good laugh. It felt right to do so as well, they were like brothers and it felt as though the world hadn't ended for the shortest time period.

"_Rick don't need to hear about me and Lori." _Shane thought to himself as the others started to file into the train car. _"It's in the past. He loves her, she loves him and I got someone else now." _He grinned when Rick left and Eliza and Lily came to sit with him instead.

"_Sure Eliza's not my little girl, but Clementine ain't Lee's and they seem to make it work really well." _With that thought, he looked to see Lee with Clementine who were playing pictionary with Kenny and Duck. _"And she thinks I'm her real dad. But that's okay, I want to be a dad and I'll be the best dad I can. I'll look after her. For the Morales, for the group...for me." _

* * *

"I'm sorry Lori..." Carol said to Carl's mother, focussing on knitting something for Lee to give to Clementine for her birthday. "I just...Sophia's a difficult girl to read."

Lori sighed, running her hand over her forehead. She had come over here to find out if, maybe, Sophia liked Carl like Carl likes her. But, according to Carol, there's no way to determine that. "C'mon Carol. You should know her better than anyone else."

Carol sighed, pausing from what she was doing. "Look I can't tell you my daughter's feelings because of how good she is at covering them up. Having Ed as a father, you'd have to be." Lori suddenly understood what the problem was and felt bad about trying to pry.

"Sorry...Guess he'll just have to confess and hope she feels the same."

"Oh she feels the same alrigh'." Daryl mentioned, coming to a stop beside them, causing Lori and Carol to look at him, surprised by his confidence of the matter.

"How would you know?!" Lori exclaimed, glaring at him. She never got along with this man, and if he was just saying this to get on her nerves, it just proves her point of hatred even further.

Daryl fished the teen magazine from the bookshop out of his back pocket and handed it over, after making sure it was on the right page. "I res' ma case."

"Wow...I didn't even notice her writing anything at all." Carol mentioned, looking over to her daughter who was playing go fish with Carl, as they usually do as a pass time.

"Well, now we know that they do like each other like that we can get them together." Daryl quickly suppressed that thought with his views.

"You can no' jus' tell them abou' the other's feelin's. Tha's an invasion of privacy." Carol raised an eyebrow at him.

"You object to that?"

"If someone wan's to keep somethin' to themselves tha's up to them." He shrugged. "Bu', tha' doesn' mean we can't give them a nudge in the righ' direction." He continued, grinning.

The other two caught on and didn't really know whether they should help him out or try to stop him. _"Oh well." _Lori thought to herself, smiling evilly. _"If Carl didn't want to do it Daryl's way, he should have just confessed." _

* * *

"Right." Lee said to Carly, who were both well clear of the others. "I'll take Clementine and stay with her in the supply area tonight while the rest of you get the area ready for her birthday the best you can."

"Actually Lee...I think you should help, I mean she'll enjoy the little party a lot more if she knew you helped." Lee rose an eyebrow at the reporter he had known to trust with even his most personal secrets. Like the fact he had killed a man before the outbreak.

"Then who do you think should stay with her? She's going to think something's up if anyone other than me or maybe Duck were to go with her." Lee already knew how much of a trust had been established between the two kids.

That might have been because the two only had each other to talk about cartoons and play games with before coming here. But, what Lee couldn't fathom was why she had grown so close to him. They had gotten along before, but that was about it. They kinda...tolerated each other.

From what he had heard, Duck would sometimes take Clementine's chalk and pencils to draw and the floor or the walls of the Motor Inn. But there's always two sides of a coin, as Clementine had been known to put bugs on Duck's bed. Even though he was a guy, Duck HATED bugs.

It can't just be that Duck had saved Clementine from the walker and Campman. They still had that trust before all that happened. Carly smiled, knowingly at him.

"I think you answered your own question. Duck can stay with her and say it's like a sleepover or something." They glanced to see that Duck was actually with Clementine right now. Clementine was drawing something and Duck was cutting where she indicated with his knife.

"Well, I guess Duck can and will protect if the last two days are anything to go by." Lee got up to leave, before Carly grabbed his arm.

"Lee, I need to talk to you about something else for a second." Lee nodded for her to continue, sitting next to her. "I...I think you should tell people about your past."

"Carly...I don't know. I mean, Rick and Shane are both cops. I don't think they'll like having a murderer around..." He sighed, running a hand through his rowing hair. It's still short, yes, but he might soon have to cut it.

"I guess you make a good point...Okay, how about once you get to trust them a bit more. Once they see who you are now, I doubt they'll care very much what you did in the past." Lee sighed once more, getting back up to his feet.

"I...I'll think about it. I know Clementine will want to stay with me no matter what, so that means if I get kicked off. She'll follow. I don't want to risk this safe haven for her." Carly smiled softly to him and quickly pecked his cheek, surprising the taller man a bit.

"That's all I ask...Oh and don't furrow your eyebrows so much, it's starting to give you wrinkles." She smirked at him, walking off to talk to Lori. Lee stood there, stupidly for a minute before Lily came over and elbowed him in the ribs.

"Close your mouth there, Romeo. Bugs might start nesting." Lee closed his mouth after he heard that, glaring at the new mother playfully, before going to find Kenny.

* * *

ML54: Okay, I think I'm nearing the end of this fic now. Just a chapter or two to go.

Carol: This chapter was quite short...well compared to the others.

ML54: I know, I didn't really have much to start on though, so this'll do.

Duck: Please review, but don't flame. Also, ML54 would like to set someone the challenge of writing a Duck/Clementine pairing since, apart from this and 6747's fic, there appears to be none of this paring.


	14. Chapter 14

ML54: Well, I'm almost done. One more chapter after this...

Shane: This is also the first chapter where a couple gets together.

Sophia: Who?

ML54: Let's just let it be a surprise. Rick!

Rick: ML54 doesn't own either Walking Deads.

**Feelings, Guilt and Training**

"So you understand Duck?" Lee asked, having told the ten year old the plan. Duck nodded in understanding, patting the pocket that he put his present to Clementine in.

"Of course. I'll tell Clementine."

"Wait..." Lee quickly stopped him, freezing afterwards. He knew he promised Carly to tell people about his past, but to Duck?

"What's up?" Duck paused, looking up at him expectantly. It's amazing how much the ten year old grew up and yet could so easily play games with the other kids like the world is just dandy.

Well, Lee reasoned, he had lost his arm and mother. If he hadn't grown up Kenny was right, Duck would have been dumber than a sack of hammers. "Well...before I met you and your parents...or even Clementine...I was in a Police car..."

"Was he driving you somewhere?" The kid asked, remembering that the man was a teacher, not a policeman.

"Yeah...He was driving me to prison..." Duck got a little more wary of Lee now, having learned that criminals were people you generally wanted to avoid.

"...Wrongly accused? Were the police being racist?" He asked, hoping it to be true. Lee was the cool guy that played with him and Clementine sometimes. The man saved his life more than once.

Unfortunately Lee shook his head. "No...I was going to prison for murder..."

"Was he a walker?" Once again, Lee shot down his inquiry.

"No...He was...He was a bad man...Just thought I'd let you know." Duck's eyes hardened a little. A murderer was looking after his best friend.

Now he had no problem with Lee being a criminal, it doesn't change who he is now. But...

"Does Clementine know?" Lee put a hand to his chin in contemplation, before nodding.

"I told her back in Macon." Duck, satisfied with that answer, smiled at the African-American man.

"Thanks for telling me. I won't tell anyone else, they need to hear it from you. Please tell my dad though..." Lee rose his eyebrow at the boy's request. "...he trusts you and I don't want that dying over a secret. It's not worth it."

"Have you been reading self-help books or something?" Duck flushed a bit, looking down.

"Sophia made me! She said I read too many comics!" Lee chuckled. There's the Duck that makes him forget that the world is over. That, in many ways, is a great thing.

* * *

"Got any fours?" Carl asked Sophia for, probably, the nineteenth time tonight. To be honest, nobody knew what time it was and, generally, didn't care. When you're tired, you fall asleep and that's about it.

"Go fish." Sophia sighed, running a hand through her hair. "You asked me that last turn and I didn't fish." Carl shrugged, picking up a card.

"I kinda lost interest in this after game twenty three."

"Yeah me too...Got any twos?" Sophia asked, not really having it in her to get a new game or even think of a new game.

"Go fish." Carl yawned, stretching his arms behind his back.

Sophia nodded, moving forward to pick a new card up...

...then Daryl walked past and nudged her forward with his foot.

She fell forward, right on top of Carl, predictably. Daryl smirked when the two looked up and saw that their faces were, literally, centimetres apart.

Their faces soon flushed with so much blood that the two became a little bit light-headed and couldn't seem to find their voices. They just kept looking, too afraid to break eye contact.

Daryl walked next to Lori and Carol, who were both looking a little shocked at what he had done, but were not about to ruin it. They were too curious about the results that this little experiment was bound to produce.

Soon, the two seemed compelled to move closer to the other, closing the gap slowly.

Just as their lips were about touch, Rick and Shane came up to them. Shane whistled loudly. "Way to go Carl!"

The two snapped back to reality and quickly scrambled away from each other, muttering apologies while facing the floor, not daring to make any eye contact in fear of the awkwardness. Daryl let out a silent curse and wandered off, cursing Shane's name most of the way.

Rick grinned in amusement as Sophia went to her mother, saying something about brushing the goldfish. Meh, can't blame her for a lack of excuse for getting the hell out of there. "That's my boy." He said, patting Carl on the back, while Carl's blush intensified.

"I-I don't...What do you need?" Carl quickly bespoke, wanting to change the subject. How did that even manage to happen anyway? One minute they were playing go fish, next minute she was on top of him, about to kiss him.

And now he's here, being embarrassed by his dad and uncle. "Well we were going to teach ya how to shoot, but ya seem to have already scored." Shane grinned, causing his dad to laugh at his bad joke. Carl put his hands over his face before his eyes widened and his head shot straight back out of them.

"Teach me to shoot?! Mom's letting me have a gun?!" Rick quickly put a hand on his son's shoulder before he got too excited.

"I haven't asked whether it'd be okay for you to hold a gun, just to teach you to shoot it. Eliza will be too as well as Duck." Shane nodded, squatting down too.

"Yeah. Me and Lily feel it'd be good for her to learn with you and Duck since we have been hunting with you before and Duck seemed to manage with one in Savannah." Rick nodded with Shane, having agreed with him in the first place.

"What about Sophia and Clementine?" Carl asked, curious about the other two. Rick half-smiled.

"They said they didn't want to learn. Clementine said she never wanted to hold one again and, well, I don't know about Sophia." Carl was curious as to why they don't want to learn, but decided to pry later. It was quite late now and they still had to get the area ready for Clementine's birthday.

* * *

"You sure they're okay with this, Duck?" The eight year old asked the ten year old, having a hard time believing that the rest of the group would let them be in the supply cart alone for the night.

Duck nodded, laying out his sleeping bad. "Yup. I asked, they said it was okay so long as we don't touch the weapons or eat too much." Clementine smirked to her friend.

"No sugar raids then." Duck rolled his eyes, un-taping his knife and putting it clear of either of their sleeping bags. Duck had enough sense to do so as they could roll over and impale themselves on it.

"I wasn't planning to." Duck then sat on the side of the open boxcar, Clementine joining him after she was done. "I heard you didn't want to go gun training." She nodded, timidly, looking outside the car and away from him.

"Yeah..." Duck looked at her with sympathy. He knew why she didn't want to. He was there to witness why. "I-I'm sorry. I jus..."

"You don't have to have a reason..." He interrupted, causing her to look back at him. "...I know why though. I don't blame you either...I can't say I'm too excited about it after...you know." Clementine nodded, laying her hand over his. Hard to believe they both lost so much after just one day.

Duck lost his mother and Clementine lost both her parents. The saddest part though, was that the pair were the ones who had to put them down. Though they knew it was better than the three being walkers for the rest of their days.

"It's funny. Yesterday we were here talking about being scared. Now we're just upset..." Clementine mentioned off-handedly, noting that they were sat in these exact same places the night before.

It's amazing that Doc was able to clean and patch up Duck's wound to the point where Duck was this strong the day after. You'd think he'd have been a seriously famous doctor with the amount he's done for Duck.

"Yeah...But we're stronger because of it, right?" Clementine smiled. Despite her not going gun training, thanks to Duck, she at least knows how to use one.

"How did you know how to use it so well?" She had to ask. It was difficult for most people to shoot a gun without training. Duck was a ten-year-old with one hand.

"My dad took me out of the Motor Inn to train me how to shoot once." Duck smiled. His dad told him he was a natural. "It started a few months back, before the farm people came."

"_Alright Duck, you ready?" The excitable young boy nodded, enthusiastically. It was one month after the group moved into the Motor Inn and the group of survivors were now stationed there with a new addition. Mark._

_Mark was a man with glasses and a black, leather jacket and was allowed here because of the shear amount of food he had to share with the group._

_Right now Lee was playing soccer with Clementine, Carly was keeping watch, Lily and Larry were sorting out rations for lunch which was in and hour and Katjaa was looking at a bad looking cut on Mark's leg that he claimed to have caught on some barbed wire._

"_Okay, but let's try to slip out quietly." Kenny told his son, seriously. Duck nodded, drawing his fingers across his lips in a 'zipping his lips' kind of style. _

_The pair, quietly, ventured out of the Motor Inn out the back and into the surrounding woodland. Kenny was seen holding a handgun in his left hand and knife in his right hand._

_Duck was standing by his father's side, knowing full well that if he gets lost out here, he may never be found again...at least not alive._

_Soon, once Kenny knew the rest of the group were out of ear shot, he let out a breath. "Okay, you can start humming James Bond now." He said, grinning to his son who had took to doing that almost immediately. The boy has been known to enjoy the hero genre of movies and Kenny knows of Duck's dream to be one some day._

_So that's why Kenny decided to allow his son to learn how to shoot. He knew that the boy had to learn sooner rather than later, so he decided it to be sooner. Duck was especially excited when his dad told him that his dad was going to do just that and was barely able to sleep the night before...well the excitement and the centipede on his pillow._

"_Dad? Can you tell Clementine to stop putting bugs on my pillow?" Kenny rose his eyebrow at the boy, but made a mental note to do just that. He knew of his son's irrational fear of bugs, so thought that he should look into why exactly Clementine does this._

"_Sure Duck..." Kenny stopped when he saw a walking in front of them. But the fact that he recognised the walker made it worse...Doug. The AV geek that had saved Carly's but had lost his when the drug store got attacked. _

_But, still, this was training. So he handed Duck the gun, turning the safety off. "Alright Duck, to kill a walker all you do is point it and pull the trigger. Try to keep the bars on the top level and don't extend your arms all the way. The recoil is quite bad on a lot of weapons. But since this is a pistol it should be alright." Doug was still a few steps away, so Duck had enough time to point the weapon. _

_The boy had listened to his father's instructions precisely, levelling the bars, pointing it at the walker's head. He kept his arms bent, his right hand clutching it, using only one hand. Kenny was about to tell Duck to use both his hands until the shot rung out and Doug fell, finally able to rest, a hole burned straight into his skull._

_A little smoke was emitted from the barrel of the gun, Duck stood there looking pretty pleased with himself and Kenny looking on in disbelief. "Did you see that dad?! First try and I got him!" _

"_You sure did...with one hand too...you're really supposed to use both hands..." Duck shrugged, handing the weapon back when his father held his hand out._

"_Well I see James Bond use a pistol with one hand all the time...It's easy enough." Kenny put the weapon in his pocket and patted his son on the shoulder, proudly. If the others do decide it's best for the two kids to start learning, then he's sure he'll have bragging rights with his son._

"_Good work. I don't really think I need to teach..." Kenny yelped as he was pushed forward, a walker pulling itself up to take a bite. _

_Duck gasped and stepped back as Kenny twisted himself round so him and the fireman walker were face-to-face, him pushing the creature's head back to be clear of it's jaws. _

_Kenny was going to bring the knife round on it's head before realising that he dropped it when he was pushed down. The man cursed and now held it back with both hands._

_Duck looked round to see that a few more walkers were heading their way as well. He was wondering where they all came from when it all suddenly made sense..._

_...the gunshot._

_Duck was about to run, before remembering his dad. His eyes hardened. He's not going to be a kid anymore. James Bond wouldn't run from danger. He turned and saw the fallen knife glimmer in the sunlight._

_The boy ran forward and snatched up the weapon, running over to his father._

_The he brought the weapon down on the fireman's head, killing it. Kenny pushing the limp walker off of him, gasping for breath._

_Duck didn't stop though. Soon another walker, a women in a ragged purple dress, limped out of the bushes toward the two. The boy plunged the knife into the women's eye socket and hopped back, killing it._

_Then another crawled out from underneath a tree. A small boy in blue pyjamas. A scratch in his neck. It appears the boy was trying to hide from the walkers. Duck's eyes softened a bit, but still struck the boy in the temple. _

_He then turned to see one last walker heading for his father who was still panting on the ground. Duck ran up to the walker in a black suit with one arm and struck it in the back of the neck, cutting it's brain stem. Killing it's body, but it's head still being alive._

_Duck pulled the knife out but saw it's jaw still snapping up and down. It surprised him to see how much they could take and threw the knife into the top of his head._

_Kenny, finally catching his breath, sat up and saw the walker littered ground and his son, sheepishly, handing his father back the knife that was now covered in blood. His father took the weapon, looking at Duck in amazement. "Did I do good dad?"_

"_Good? You saved my life!" Kenny exclaimed, hugging his son who's face flustered in embarrassment. "You're a natural little hero!" Duck's eyes sparkled, a huge grin on his face._

"_Really?" Kenny nodded, looking his son in the eye._

"_Really. I don't need to teach you a thing. Now let's head back. But we'll keep this to ourselves, okay. It's best if no-one else knows what happened."_

"Oops!" Duck voiced, clamping his stump over his mouth after he told Clementine that part. "Uh...Just forget everything I just told you!"

The little girl giggled at his silliness. The boy really wasn't too smart, but his survival instincts and dedication to the group was beyond impressive.

"Well, you're not just you're dad's hero...you're my hero too Duck." Clementine said, smiling to the boy, slipping the fingers of the her hand that rested over his remaining one, to interlock with his. Duck blushed, rubbing the back of his neck with his stump.

"I-I not really...jus..."

"No you are. You saved my life twice and gave me the courage to let my parents rest." She insisted. "You really are a hero and don't you go thinking differently." She kissed his cheek, causing his blush to intensify ten-fold. "Thank you."

"S-s-s-s-s-sure." He said, very unsteadily. He doesn't really know what's stopping him from telling the girl how he feels because, right now, it looks like she's returning those feelings.

Luckily the growing tension was broken when Clementine let out a soft yawn. He smiled to her, getting up and offering her his hand. "You ready to go to sleep."

"Sure..." Clementine replied, taking his hand again and letting him lead her over to the sleeping bags. The two let go of the other's hand, feeling a slight coldness when they did so, and got in them.

The two looked at each other for a while before Clementine asked. "Duck...Who's James Bond?"

Duck stared at her for a bit, before grinning ear-to-ear. "Well, to answer that, I'll tell you a story that won't suck like the others."

* * *

"I'm glad you decided to help out here Lee." Carly mentioned, looking to the balloons that Carly had picked up from a party store when the group made their way back from the book store. She had found a few birthday cards and other stuff that they can use for Clementine's birthday.

To be honest, this will be good for the whole group. Her birthday will help everyone take their minds off of the apocalypse and enjoy themselves.

Lee smiled back. "Yeah, I am too. This looks a lot more cheerful than anything we've seen in a few days." He then sighed and put a hand on the women's shoulder. "I just...uh...wanted to let you know that I'm sorry I couldn't save Doug." Carly took his hand and looked him in the eye.

"Listen Lee. Don't take what that asshole said to mean anything. You didn't murder Doug. I know you, and you'd have never let that happen to him if you could help it." She told the man.

"I know...But I keep thinking to what his last words to me were...He thought I was a cool guy...He told me that...even though he didn't know what I did..." Carly's eye softened to the conflicted man. He's taken to thinking that whatever happened with the group was his fault.

He thought it was his fault that Mark was dead, having trust the St. Johns with taking care of his wounds...That it was his fault that Duck, Lily and Larry had all eaten human meat that the St. John's fed them. Kenny didn't trust the food, Katjaa was focused on getting Duck fed and Clementine had put it down when Lee had said.

He also thought it was his fault that the St. Johns had overpowered them and took Duck and Katjaa hostage, his fault that Larry had a heart attack in the locker. His fault because he could have tried to help Larry, but opted to help Kenny destroy the brain.

"Sometimes I have nightmares..." Carly's attention was drawn to Lee. "...That the St. John brothers will come back...kill Clementine and force me to...to eat her..." She knew that the African-American man had chosen to spare Andy and Danny St. John's lives, but their mother was eaten by Mark, who had died and turned.

"They have no idea where we are Lee...They won't find us..." She put both her hands in his and squeezed them reassuringly. "Nothing that happened was your fault."

"Thanks Carly..." He said, smiling slightly. "I needed...Carly?" He questioned, seeing her looking at him a little strangely yet all too familiar to Lee. He remembered those looks from his ex-wife. She wanted him.

She leaned forward and caught his lips with his, catching him by surprise a little. But it wasn't too long before he kissed back.

The two would have continued a little longer if they weren't interrupted.

"Lee and Carly sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" The two broke apart and saw Eliza giggling at them with Lily next to her, pressing a hand over her mouth to muffle her. She looked at them, apologetically, and took her 'daughter' to her 'husband'.

The two blushed, but did not make any move to go anywhere else. Instead Carly shuffled round and interlocked one of her hands with his, resting her head on his shoulder, smiling. "I'm glad you found us, Lee."

"Me too, Carly. Me too."

* * *

ML54: I thought they were a good pair and it was heavily implied in the game in episode three.

Kenny: Review, but don't flame.


	15. Chapter 15

ML54: Welcome to the season finale of The Walking Dead, New Hope.

Rick: Somehow I don't think it will be a happy ending.

Shane: When is it ever?

Sophia: Oh snap!

ML54: *Sighs* I don't own The Walking Dead in either format and I know my Geography is a little fucked up, but bear with. I decided that the train had turned back on itself since it was on a fixed route... you'll see.

**Birthday Gone Wrong**

Clementine awoke the next morning, being nudged by something. She yawned and sat up to see Duck smiling at her with a present in his hand, his outstretched stump poking her shoulder. "Duck?" She asked, sleepily.

Duck nodded and held out her present. "Happy birthday, Clem." She stared blankly at him for a few minutes before her eyes widened.

"It's my birthday?" She asked, excitedly, taking the present from his hand. A conformational nod was all it took from Duck for her to rip the paper off the present like a walker into it's latest meal.

She held up the silver locket, gasping slightly in surprise. Duck sighed in relief once a big smile spread on her face, it's a good thing he didn't screw up. He tended to do that.

She hugged the slightly bigger boy tightly. "Thanks Duck, I love it." Though he bushed greatly, he smiled at her happiness. It was good that it could still be found at this time.

He hugged back after sussing that she wouldn't let go until he did, despite him not really wanting to let go himself. "No problem."

* * *

Rally, who was still in the driver's carriage, woke with a start when he heard the little ding and the flashing of the light that signals that the train was almost out of gas. "How the?" He asked himself, getting up. "I thought this thing had plenty of fuel."

He opened the door and went to the engine compartment. Once he opened it, everything appeared fine. Everything was in working order.

Once that was checked he noticed a certain smell...fuel.

He glanced over the side of the train and, to his horror, discovered that one of the fuel pumps had a hole in it. "I thought I..." He was about to say to himself, before seeing the arrow wedged in there.

"Those fucking bandits!" He exclaimed, punching the railings in fustration. "I better tell Rick!" He reacted quickly, running to the second car where the little birthday party was taking place.

* * *

It was quite peaceful in the party for Clementine. They didn't have a lot in terms of entertainment, but it was enough to keep the birthday girl happy. She also learned of the new relationship established between Lee and Carly, which she was also happy about.

Everything was going quite well, until Rally broke the news.

"AH HELL!" Daryl cursed, punching the wall in fustration. "Denise gave his life to ge' tha' fuel, now y'all sayin' it's gone!" Rally nodded, timidly. He was afraid of this reaction, considering that they hadn't seen any civilization for a while.

"We'll probably make it another mile before we run out..." Lee mentioned, laying out the map. "...so we'll at least make it here...I hope."

"Woodbury?" Rick asked, looking at the picture on the map in contemplation. "Maybe...It's worth a shot..."

"_No! Don' go to Woodbury!" _They heard a static-like voice say. They all turned to Rally, who turned up the radio.

"Tha' you, Merle?" Daryl asked, surprised his brother was talking to them again.

"_Nah, it's tha fuckin' tooth fairy! Who do ya thin' it is?"_ Rick sighed, running a hand through his hair. At least Carl had taken the rest of the kids to play cards...probably go fish.

"Why shouldn't we go to Woodbury, Merle?" Rick asked, trying to get to the bottom of this.

"_Cop boy there? Goo', then listen up! I'm still a little sore abou' tha handcuffs, bu' I'll le' tha' go for now. Woodbury is populated. It has people, run by this man who calls himself the governor." _

"Sounds like they got what we're looking for then." Shane mentioned, confused. "If it's got people it's obviously got protection. Sounds like we could benefit from there assistance too."

"_You're no' getting' it, are ya. Tha governor ain' gonna help ya. He'll kill ya! Tha's wha' he does. He only looks ou' for his people. Once he kills ya, he'll take ya supplies and leave you're bodies for walkers!"_

"Why would he do that?" Kenny asked, even more confused.

"_Cause he don' wan' more mouths ta feed. Trus' me, he can' be trusted." _With that, the signal went off and Merle wasn't there anymore. The group all looked at each other uneasily.

The tension was broken, however, well T-Dog cleared his throat. "Well, as strange as it sounds, I believe Merle."

"I do too." Daryl added. "He wouldn't have warned us for nothing...This governor sounds like a whack job..."

"But where else are we going to get fuel?" Shane asked, posing the question on everyone's mind. "We can't just abandon this train! It's the safest and fastest route we've got to California!"

"There's a prison near the area too...right next to the tracks...well a little ways through the forest, but it should be good enough to hold out until we can repair the fuel pump..." Lee mentioned, studying the map a little more closely.

"Alright...Rick announced. "Then that's..."

Suddenly the side of the train carriage exploded, causing everyone to stumble over and Rally, who was standing quite close to where the explosion occurred, to fall to the ground.

Rick grunted, hearing a loud ringing in his ears, and scanned the area. The kids were all in the corner, Duck and Carl holding their arms out protectively in front of the three girls. He spotted Doc checking on Rally and Glen, who had both got knocked out by the blast. He saw Lee helping Kenny to his feet, Lily by his side. Carly was with Lori and Carol, heading to the five children.

T-Dog was with Charlotte, taking cover behind a piece of wood shrapnel from the blast. Daryl was shooting a glock 17 pistol out of the new hole in the side of the carriage.

Shane stumbled over to him, yelling at him to do something, but he couldn't hear anything at this point in time. "RICK! RICK!" Shane screamed, grabbing onto his arm. Rick's senses suddenly found themselves and he was able to get to his feet.

"SHANE THE WEAPONS!" Shane nodded, knowing what his friend was getting at.

The two got down, noticing the enemy now firing back. Bullet holes started to get plugged into what remained of the wall. "PRONE! NOW!" Shane nodded, finally able to use their police training again, and started to crawl on the floor towards the door to the other car.

* * *

"I NEED HELP! RALLY'S BEEN HIT!" Doc cried out, noticing blood starting to pour out of the man's side, a big piece of wood jutting out of it. Glen awoke after a brief coma and quickly sprang to the doctor's aid. "KEEP PRESSURE ON HIS WOUND, I'LL TRY TO STOP THE BLEEDING!"

Glen clasped his hands over the mechanic's wound, desperate to keep him alive. Doc put his fingers to the side of his neck, checking for a pulse...

...nothing.

With regret, Doc looked at Glen. The Korean nodded sadly, and pulled a knife from his pocket, plunging it into the man's eye, making sure he won't come back. "RALLY'S GONE!" Charlotte gasped in shock. Then her eyes hardened and she leapt from cover and opened the door to the car, allowing Rick and Shane to pass through.

The three soon entered and grabbed all the biggest guns they could find and the riot shield as well. Shane held the riot shield out, keeping the bullets off of them as they threw the guns to everyone.

T-Dog grabbed the AK-47 that was thrown to him and stood up from cover, firing off a couple of shots into the forests. Unfortunately, the group were only shooting blindly into the woods, they had no way of knowing where the enemy were.

"THOSE FUCKING BANDITS DON'T LET UP!" Kenny yelled out, standing up to fire out a couple of shots from his weapon, before getting down as more bullets flew his way.

"THESE GUYS ARE TOO ORGANISED TO BE BANDITS!" Shane called back, a couple more shots hitting his shield. "THIS IS A LIKE GOD-DAMN ARMY!"

"_THA WOODBURY ARMY!" _They heard Merle shout out of the radio that now lies on Glen's belt. Suddenly another explosion rang out and the whole train lurched onto it's side, a few people stumbling...

...Clementine falling out.

"CLEMENTINE!" Duck cried, grabbing hold of the girl's hand, before realising that he wasn't holding anything and they both fell out.

"NO!" Lee and Kenny screamed in horror when the two kids they cared about more than anything else both fell down the hillside forest. Suddenly, the train lurched again, causing others to hold onto each other.

* * *

Lori saw Carl, Sophia and Eliza huddled together in the corner, Carl watching the area Duck and Clementine fell in horror, when she saw a flash in the trees...

...a gun scope.

Reacting quickly, she threw herself into the bullets line of fire. About a second later a blistering pain shot through her chest. Carl looked up and into his mother's eyes, the realisation of what had happened dawning on him.

She smiled one last time, before she fell. "MOM!" Rick heard Carl and saw his wife, the women he loves more than any other...

...dead.

"LORI!" He cried in anguish. Shane, too heard, and looked to the brunette in sorrow. His eyes then hardened and he ran to Rick.

"RICK! RICK! WE NEED TO GET OFF THIS TRAIN!" Another bullet hit his shield, and he cursed, seeing the man break down. Shit! "EVERYONE! TO THE SUPPLY CAR! GRAB ANYTHING YOU CAN! GO!" Shane picked his best friend up, him being to blank to do anything, and half dragged him into the car, everyone following.

T-Dog did too, then a pain shot through his arm. "Ah! I'M HIT!" T-Dog cried, clutching his arm in pain. Daryl grabbed him and helped him into the car.

Everyone, once in the car, grabbed a pack except T-Dog who was getting his wound wrapped up by Doc quickly and started to get food, water, ammo and anything they could.

Lee, Rick and Kenny were almost walkers while doing so though, as if any will to survive was gone. Carl was trying his best to hold it together, Sophia was helping him pack because anything he picked up he dropped a second later.

Shane looked to his best friend and sighed, clenching his eyes shut, and walking over to him. "Rick! Rick what do we do?!" Rick looked back, blankly, and muttered the two words he hoped not to hear...

"You decide."

Shane was about to curse out loud before noticing the train slowing down and flatland ahead. _"YES!" "_Everyone jump! Roll once you land and get to your feet! If Lee's predictions are accurate, we'll find the prison after about a hundred yards!"

Everyone nodded and got ready, swinging what they could carry on their backs, T-Dog bracing himself for a rough landing. "One! Two! Three! GO!" The group jumped and rolled, as per instructed, then ran or limped in T-Dog's case into the forests, the trees now providing plenty of cover.

They all then heard a loud crash and looked back to see the train derail and crash into the tree line.

A few more meters in, they decided to stop so Doc can patch up T-Dog properly. Then Lee, Kenny, Rick and Carl broke down at their losses.

Shane looked at Rick and sighed. _"Guy will need a break...Guess I'm in charge til he recovers...if he recovers..." _

* * *

"Clementine...Clementine please wake up! Please!" Duck pleaded, his body covered in bruises and a few cuts. Clementine was in the same condition, but she had passed out too. Their clothes had rips and tears in them, but were still wearable at least.

Clementine's eyes opened and saw Duck, jolting awake she saw that they were in the forest, not the boxcar. _"Then it wasn't a nightmare." _"Are you okay? I can see cuts and bruises, but I can't tell for sure."

Clementine nodded, getting to her feet with help from the older boy. "We really...?"

"Afraid so...But at least we're alive. That's a start." Duck said, scanning the area. If his camp leader is as good as Duck knew he was, then they just have to follow lichen growth on the trees to get to a town or any building. "We got to find the others..."

"Yeah..." Clementine whimpered, clutching Duck's hand with both of hers. "Lee and your dad will be worried." Duck smiled, sadly at her before checking his blade. He was lucky he brought it but...

...that was all they had!

"C'mon Clementine. Let's go!" Duck said to her, trying to sound strong...but they were alone with no food, water, tent...just a knife and the clothes on their backs.

They were truly alone.

* * *

ML54: Oh the new season is going to be exciting!

Doc: *Gawks* You just killed off two people, seriously injure another and left two kids in the woods on their own!

ML54: Hat.

Rick: *Sighs* Of course.

ML54: Well, this has been a fun story to write and, hopefully, I won't leave you guys on hold for too long to get the new season up. Please review, no flaming.


End file.
